A COMMUNITY is celebrating after winning an 10-year battle to get a rat-run for troublemakers blocked off.

Oxfordshire County Council finally padlocked three gates on an alleyway between Pegasus Road and Windale Avenue in Blackbird Leys, Oxford.

People have used the alleyway to drink, take drugs, urinate and defecate, swear, sing, use cans as footballs, kick fences, while littering the area with rubbish including empty spirit bottles and condoms.

The decision to seal off the alleyway was taken by Oxford City Council in 2005, but halted by the county council, which needed to approve the scheme because it was a public highway.

County Hall was handed power to gate off alleyways and footpaths on crime and antisocial behaviour grounds in September 2006 as part of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act. Despite delays due to legal difficulties, the ‘Gating Order’ is the first one in Oxfordshire to be approved.

Jimmy Hayes, who has been burgled four times by people using the alleyway to get into his garden shed, said he could relax now the gates were in place.

The 71-year-old widow, of Windale Avenue, said: “I’m very pleased indeed. At one stage it was all agreed and I thought ‘Great’ and I went on holiday and then I got back and my neighbour said they had done a U-turn, so until they put the key in my hand, only then will I believe it.”

Making and installing the gates cost about £5,000.