Families breathed a sigh of relief when squatters were finally evicted from an empty house opposite their homes, writes Phil Clee.

But the departure of the illegal occupants has made the property in Howard Street, east Oxford, even more of an eyesore, they claim.

For since the bailiffs moved the squatters out, the front garden has been filled with the all the rubbish they left behind.

A pile of filthy mattresses and other discarded bedding, abandoned sofas and sacks of rubbish now present teacher Andrew Foakes and his neighbours with an ugly scene every time they look out of their windows. And despite repeated calls to the city council requesting the rubbish to be cleared, they are still waiting for action to be taken.

Mr Foakes, who is now supply teaching after returning with his wife, Rachel, from working in Hong Kong, said: "It's pretty horrible.

"I reckon it looks worse now that it did when the squatters were there.

"I must have rung five or six times and nothing was done, and in the end I got so fed up I rang the complaints department.

"They promised to look into it and ring me back, but they never did." Peta Donaghey, of the council's environmental health department, said the city council usually only became involved with dumped rubbish if it was causing a statutory nuisance.

She said that would be if toxic substances were involved, or if the rubbish posed another health hazard.

She promised the matter would be passed on to Charlotte Yapp, a senior environmental officer, for further investigation.

"It needs to be inspected," she said.

Story date: Monday 28 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.