Up to 1,500 volunteers are taking to the streets and parks this weekend to clean up Oxford.

Nearly 100 groups and organisations have registered for the OxClean Spring Clean, which runs until Sunday.

It is being organised by the Oxford Civic Society and Oxford City Council and supported by our sister paper The Oxford Times.

Eighteen schools and colleges, along with youth groups and residents' associations have stepped forward to volunteer.

And the civic society said it has had requests for 600 litter pickers to use during the city's first volunteer effort of its kind.

Help, like the mountains of litter, is coming in all shapes and sizes over the weekend.

The Rev Willy Pryor, of St Margaret's Church, Summertown, is organising a team of litter-picking Wombles who will be meeting up in the car park of the Vines, in Banbury Road, on Sunday.

Members of the Falcon Canoe Club plan to clean up the River Thames, using its fleet of canoes, while the New Headington Residents' Association has persuaded Starbucks to provide a free cup of coffee for volunteers helping to clean up the area.

The civic society, after spending weeks organising the camapign to turn Oxford into a city of litter pickers, will not be sitting back.

Members will be tackling part of the A40 northern bypass, and started work today on the Marston turn-off.

Litter around Oxford's ring road has been the cause of most complaints, with the eastern bypass branded a "disgrace" by a pensioner who has called for urgent action.

As we reported earlier this week, David John said the state of the verges between Heyford Hill and Rose Hill roundabouts needed immediate attention. The city council said the cost had prevented it from doing the work on a regular basis.