THE man responsible for keeping Oxford’s streets clean has vowed to make untidy tenants pay the cost of removing their mess.

City councillor John Tanner, board member for a cleaner, greener Oxford, said the council would investigate properties named as grot spots by Oxford Mail readers.

Mr Tanner said: “I welcome the Oxford Mail campaign. It is important that we all keep our gardens clean and tidy for the sake of our neighbours.

“We will be following up all these cases, warning people but then taking legal action if necessary.

At Oxford Magistrates’ Court last month, Nadia Vollenhoven, 29, of Hawksmoor Road, Sunnymead, was fined £100 and ordered to pay the city council £200 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Vollenhoven had failed to comply with a notice served in September to remove debris from her then property in Buckler Road, Cuttleslowe, North Oxford.

Several readers contacted our newsdesk after reading our report on the prosecution, claiming discarded furniture, dumped shopping trolleys and litter were turning their neighbourhoods into tips.

The Oxford Mail visited homes named as grot spots across the city, and tried to speak to people living in them.

Arthur Glia, of Jersey Road, Rose Hill, said: “I don’t know the system. When I moved in I was promised the garden would be cleared.”

A woman from Dashwood Road, Rose Hill, declined to comment. No-one else living in the properties was available to comment.

Bill Baker, a former Lord Mayor of Oxford who lives in Donnington and has campaigned against fly-tipping, said: “It’s definitely getting worse and multiple-occupancy houses are part of it.

“I don’t blame the students or tenants, they’re not going to cut their gardens, they’re only renting the property and they probably don’t have any tools.

“But the landlords should be taken to task because it is making the place look like a slum.

“It’s disgusting and I wish more was done about it.”

Mr Tanner said: “I don’t think the situation is getting worse. My impression is that things are getting better.

Ron Holden is a champion and I know there are many more like him making Oxford a better place.”

“If anyone spots a grot spot they should let me or the city council know.

“Once reported, we will contact the household or the landlord and give them a warning, and if needs be clear up the mess and send them the bill.”

The city council’s cleaner streets team can be reached on 01865 252900.

RUBBISH-strewn roads are becoming “a way of life” in Oxford, according to a pensioner who has waged a one-man war against the mess.

Ron Holden, who has lived in East Avenue, East Oxford, for almost 50 years, has been clearing overflowing bins and litter twice a week from his road for the last 15 years.

He said: “It’s almost as though people are getting used to seeing it like this. It’s different for our age group, I remember when people used to sweep the streets and scrub the front. That’s gone by the wayside.”

Mr Holden, who is in his 70s, lives in what has become the heart of Oxford’s student community, and is surrounded by houses of multiple occupancy.

He said: “My pride will not allow me not to do what there needs to be done.

“While I am fit enough I will do what needs to be done for my household and others.”

Mr Holden said he regularly picks up tissues, used drinks cans and empty beer bottles left outside his home.

He continued: “A week last Friday I got up in the morning and looked out of our bedroom window and looked across the road and there were six items quite close together.

“Last week on the Monday I collected a whole shopping bag full of rubbish. There must have been about 20 items.

“There’s a house with students in it — young lads who are so untidy.

“I couldn’t believe how bad it had got — there had been pizzas thrown out the front.

“They did have a tidy up, but a week last Friday night they had a party until about 2am or 3am.

“When I woke up on Saturday morning I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were 40 or 50 bottles thrown in the front among other rubbish.

“It seems to have become a way of life in East Avenue now.”

Mr Holden praised the city council for regularly deploying litter pickers in the area, but added: “There’s no excuse for it, it just needs people to keep their minds to it.

“We shouldn’t expect the council to do the total job.

“They can do their job, providing husbandry, doing the bins, and that works well, but it’s up to people to keep their premises clean.

“People leave their bins out all the time, they don’t take them inside their fronts.

“It’s mess upon mess. It’s getting worse, without a shadow of a doubt.”

tairs@oxfordmail.co.uk