YET more of Oxford’s grot spots are being investigated by the city council after Oxford Mail readers highlighted the filthy areas in their neighbourhoods.

In Blackbird Leys, land which used to be occupied by garages in Balfour Road has become a magnet for fly tipping.

Neighbour Andrew Dixon said: “We’ve had at grot spot behind us for the last 20 years.

“There were garages when we first moved in but they’ve gone and it’s now tarmacadam with a gate across it.

“Everybody just uses it as a dump. I’ve been in contact with councillors and MP Andrew Smith, and things get done, but then it just becomes a mess again.

“We’ve done our house up and our neighbours have done theirs up nicely, but we have to live next door to it.

“We all pay our council tax but nothing’s ever done about it.

“There’s everything in there – broken glass, window frames, human excrement, old settees, skips. People drive in there and dump stuff.

“There are kids who play around here and it’s not nice when you’ve got to scoop up human poo.”

Jenny Wright, from Watlington, regularly notices rubbish dumped by the recycling bins at the entrance to the Oxford Retail Park in Cowley.

She said: “It always seems to be at its worst early in the week. People think that if they dump stuff there it will get picked up, so I suppose it is with good intentions, but it doesn’t get recycled if it’s left next to the skips.

“I’ve often seen the council workers down there and said it’s a problem, because they have got to come and clear it all up.

“It just looks a mess.”

Another reader, who did not wish to be named, said: “There are two houses on Botley Road which are filthy. They are student houses next door to each other and the bins are always overflowing. It looks a mess.

“It’s the landlords who should be held responsible for the mess.

“The students don’t care about what their houses look like because they know they won’t be there for very long.”

Stewart Thorp sent in pictures of a grot spot in Howard Street, East Oxford.

He said: “These green bins and the box full of cans have been blocking the pavement for more than six weeks. They have never been moved inside the property.

“I reported them to the council about four weeks ago.

“There is a lot of room in the front garden, and a side access, where they could be stored out of the way.”

tairs@oxfordmail.co.uk