A call has been made for all litter bins to be bolted to the ground - after a bin costing £550 went missing in East Oxford.

The theft, from St Mary's Road, is the second large, metal litter bin which has been stolen from an East Oxford street in the past few months.

Now councillors want all trash cans to be firmly secured.

Ian Shepherd, neighbourhood environment action team area co-ordinator for Oxford City Council, told a meeting of the council's east area parliament that action was needed.

He said: "Considering how many bins there are in the area, it might pay to secure them to save them going missing."

Sid Phelps, who represents the St Mary's ward on the city council, also believes something needs to be done.

He said: "They are quite substantial things. Nothing disappears, they must be somewhere. I would not like to suggest they are in student kitchens, but somebody is taking them and it is really frustrating.

"Each bin costs £550 and we would rather spend that money on something useful in the community."

He asked that if anybody spotted a bin where it should not be, they should contact the city ouncil.

Craig Simmons, who is also on the east area parliament, said: "I do not want an area without a bin.

"It is not our fault, and we did say it should be bolted. But I think it is important we agree to a new bin on the understanding it will be bolted down, if at all possible."

A spokesman for the city council said he was only aware of three cases of bins going missing in the last year.

But he added: "Some litter bins are not bolted down to allow us flexibility in their locations.

"Recently, we have had a small number of bins being moved or hidden.

"This has not been widespread but in future we will be bolting down litter bins where we do have problems."