OXFORD will be made cleaner — even if it means taking more legal action, the city’s environment chief warned last night.

City councillor John Tanner, board member for a cleaner, greener Oxford, vowed to pursue untidy landlords through the courts.

He said: “If Oxford residents make a rubbish heap of their gardens we will take action and use enforcement notices if necessary.

“Most people keep their yards and gardens neat and tidy and so should everyone."

Mr Tanner was speaking after an Oxford woman was fined for failing to clear up rubbish bags from her front garden.

Nadia Vollenhoven, 29, was served with an enforcement notice in September last year, which ordered her to remove the mess from outside her property in Buckler Road, Sunnymead, within a week. Vollenhoven, now of Hawksmoor Road, Cutteslowe, failed to comply with the notice and the debris was cleared by council officers in October.

Her case was heard at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Friday in her absence.

She was fined £100 and ordered to pay the city council £200 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Mr Tanner said: “Prosecution is rare. Usually a letter is enough.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to get hold of the landlord but if you threaten court action that is often sufficient. We are determined we will have an Oxford which is a lot tidier and cleaner. We are going to remind people they have a responsibility not to make their front garden into a rubbish dump.”

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