A group of "guerilla gardeners" descended on a Cowley estate this weekend in an attempt to try and make the area look better.

The Horspath estate residents were fed up with the lack of work being done to clear-up the area, plant flowers and generally maintain it — so they decided to do it themselves.

Gus Bianchini, chairman of the Horspath Road Area Residents and Tenants Association, HART, would not be drawn on who exactly had planned the clandestine gardening or who was involved, but said the association had agreed to provide £100 to pay for flowers, bulbs and other supplies.

He said: "For the small amount that it is going to cost, we decided we would pay for it to help the community.

"Nobody admits to owning these flower beds or to keeping them clean and planted with flowers so they look pretty."

Mr Bianchini said the decision to take action was borne out of frustration.

He said: "Other parts of the city get the five-star treatment and they are already planted with winter flowers. Some of the residents are very unhappy about this so a band of "guerilla gardeners" have taken things in to their own hands.

"I think it is a bit poor that it is down to local residents to do this."

A small handful of residents from the Horspath estate took up their trowels, forks and gardening gloves on Sunday morning and tackled the flower beds at the end of Horspath Road near to the Eastern Bypass.

Mr Bianchini, who lives in Fairfax Road, said it was too early to tell what the repercussions of the guerilla action — which is technically against the law — would be.

He said: "At the end of the day it is for the good of the community.

"It is exciting and a lot of people had a little bit of doubt about volunteering but we hope nothing bad will come of it."