Visitors to Oxford are greeted by a grotty bus station, lines of wheelie bins and a struggle with their luggage, it is claimed.

Critics say the bus station at Gloucester Green and the market place beside it are dirty, rubbish-strewn and badly maintained because there is no single organisation that is responsible for their upkeep.

Oxford City Council's highways and traffic committee has refused to approve spending £21,000 a year on luggage trolleys at the bus station - the equivalent of £1,000 per trolley.

Alex Hollingsworth, the committee chairman, said the committee wanted to put the money towards wider improvements to the bus station.

Council officers are due to report on the situation to the council's city centre management group on Thursday.

Gillian Eustace, of Oxford Civic Society, said particular complaints were the griminess of the bus station generally, particularly the entrance to the public lavatories and the glass screens at the station, and the run-down space outside the Tourist Information Centre, complete with a line of wheelie bins.

"These are small things - it just needs somebody to manage it," she said. "If somebody just accepted ownership of the problem and treated it with common sense it would go away. With this horizontal responsibility no-one bears responsibility."

Part of Gloucester Green is owned by a private company and part by Oxford City Council. Council responsibility for the area is split between a number of departments those which take care of car parks and cleansing.

Now the Liberal Democrat opposition on the city council has started another push for something to be done about the area.

Cllr Jackie Gray said the trolleys were a particular problem. The council had bought 21 trolleys since 1985, of which only eight remain, and they were often scattered.

"These trolleys cost a fortune and they are never there when you arrive at the bus station, which is no good if you've got luggage to get to the taxi rank - which you can't see from the bus station - particularly if you're disabled," she added.

"I've been going on about this for four years, it's a total disgrace and Labour never put any money into it."

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