STUDENTS and other smokers who fail to bin their trash are making an estate look like a disused cigarette factory, it has been claimed.

Neighbours of the Oxford and Cherwell Valley College campus in Cuddesdon Way, Blackbird Leys, said there had been a build up of cigarette butts on the road because students smoke outside the college during lesson breaks.

They said the cigarette ends had been dropped in a church doorway, on flowerbeds and on the road, causing a disgusting mess.

The college promised to continue promoting a no littering policy to its students, following the complaints to the Oxford Mail.

But it said students were already aware of littering as they had taken part in voluntary clean ups organised by Oxford Civic Society and Oxford City Council.

Carmel Ryan, a mother-of-five from nearby Balfour Road, said she noticed the growing pile of cigarette butts when she went to the nearby shops in Blackbird Leys Road. Ms Ryan said: “It is absolutely disgusting. It is not like an ashtray full of them — it is like a sackful.

“It is the college students coming out on their breaks.

“It brings the community down — I feel sick looking at it.”

Brian Lester, former chairman of Blackbird Leys Parish Council who has campaigned to clean up the estate, said: “It looks like a disused cigarette factory.

“There are butts all over the place.

“It makes it look dirty — it is not a very nice sight at all.”

In February the Oxford Mail revealed street wardens were being encouraged to dish out £75 fines to litter louts in Oxford.

Last monthm an Abingdon woman was fined £115 and ordered to pay £100 by Didcot magistrates after she failed to pay a £75 on-the-spot fine for dropping a cigarette butt.

The Rev David Parry, of Holy Family Church, opposite the campus, said he was aware of the littering problem, when he was approached by the Oxford Mail.

He said cigarette butts and drinks cans were being dropped in the church doorway and a flowerbed.

But he added: “It’s certainly not confined to students from OCVC. Older people have a habit of doing the same sort of thing.

“We try to encourage young people who come on to church ground to smoke to dispose of their rubbish in a bin that is there.

“Some of them do, but some of them are less good at doing it.”

A spokesman for the college said OCVC was always happy to collaborate on community initiatives to tackle litter.

She added: “We take the issue very seriously at the college, providing disposal bins at the main entrance, which we encourage students to use.

“We will continue to spread the “no butts” message as vociferously as we can across all our campuses.”

ghamilton@oxfordmail.co.uk