People in Botley are calling for volunteer litter pickers to show civic pride and make sure the area is not one of the few to miss out on this year’s Big Tidy Up.

Vale of White Horse District Council’s Big Tidy Up last month saw towns and villages across the area take part in a mammoth blitz on litter.

The event included 110 volunteers who took part in clean-ups of Cumnor and Appleton.

In total about they picked up 220 bags of rubbish.

Now Ag MacKeith, of Old Botley, is calling on residents to help her organise a tidy-up of the area which includes the West Way shopping centre, the flyover underneath the A34 and Hurst Rise Road up to Matthew Arnold School.

She said: “A couple of people so far have indicated that they would be interested in taking part, but there’s lots to do here.

“Much more of Botley would need a clean-up if some volunteers were not going out and cleaning stuff up already.

“The worst place around here is the A34 from the bottom of Botley and up into Westminster Way.

“I’d like the whole of Botley to turn out and spend ten minutes picking up rubbish – but that won’t happen.

“If we could get a dozen people picking up rubbish for two hours we could encourage each other and that would be great.

“It would be nice to get some children involved and it’s good for children to see their parents think tidying up litter is important.”

Ms MacKeith said she was inspired after taking part in the OxClean event earlier this year.

She was part of a team with cycling campaign group Cyclox which cleaned up rubbish from the verges on the bike track from the Botley Interchange to the old Wytham Road.

In November last year, Oxford City Council launched the Cleaner, Greener Oxford campaign in a bid to help clean up the city.

Litter, flytipping, abandoned cars and dog walkers who do not pick up their dog dirt were all in the firing line.

Anyone who wants to make the Botley Big Tidy Up happen should contact Ms MacKeith on agmakeith@yahoo.co.uk