Motorists delayed vital street cleaning work when they left their cars parked in an east Oxford street -- despite being asked to move them.

Oxford City Council's city works department wrote to Argyle Street residents about three weeks ago, asking them to park elsewhere between 8am and 10am on Tuesday.

The work, to stop flooding problems, had to be abandoned when council staff discovered the letter had been ignored and parked cars still lined both sides of the street.

A reminder was posted through doors last Tuesday night, but when staff returned on Wednesday they were hampered by cars still left in the street. City works technical support manager Andrew Burchett said: "We normally clear 50 or 60 gulleys per day, but it took us six hours to do six in Argyle Street.

"I hope people who haven't moved their cars realise the rest of the street is clean and wonder why their cars are sitting in a pile of dirt.

"We did some, but then had to go back the next day to finish it off. We prefer to be able to do it in one go. The delay will have had some knock-on effect on our service. I think people realise how worthwhile this is when they see our lorry turn up and know we are actually doing something."