TRADERS say the streets of Cowley Road are paved with grease, vomit and litter and have called on the city council to clean up Oxford’s most colourful street.

Fed-up business owners say the state of the pavement on East Oxford’s busiest shopping district and nightspot has deteriorated rapidly since it was refurbished in 2005.

Many traders fear customers are now being put off visiting their businesses because of the grime on the streets.

They want pavements in the Cowley Road to be brought up to the standard of rival shopping districts in Summertown and Headington.

However, the council has said it needs greater co-operation from traders before street cleaning is improved further.

Restaurateur Aziz Ur-Rahman, who runs the Indian and Bangladeshi restaurant Aziz in Cowley Road, said: “A lot of traders are really upset about this.

“It’s not fair on the shopkeepers trying to develop a quality business to have these dirty, filthy streets on their doorstep.

“We have never seen a street warden giving a fine to someone up here and we have got to have better policing with the wardens giving out fines to people who pollute the streets.

“The streets need to be cleaner If it was clean, people would feel embarrassed to throw their litter on it.”

Since the council launched its Cleaner, Greener Oxford campaign nine months ago wardens have issued 425 fixed penalty notices for littering across the city, but just three in Cowley Road.

Jan Bartlett, who has worked on Cowley Road for 35 years and owned Premier Lettings for the last 15 years, said: “The state of the pavement definitely puts people off coming into our office.

“We don’t want people falling over last night’s takeaway box or vomit on the way here.

“This is the dirtiest the Cowley Road has ever been.

“They never jet-wash it.”

Talat Nawaz, owner of Mobilink, said: “The street is in a mess and people are being put off coming here.

“It’s getting worse and worse every day.”

Council spokesman Louisa Dean said the authority cleaned the pavements with a mechanical sweeper every day and emptied bins on the Cowley Road at regular intervals.

She said the council was looking to improve cleansing in the area, including doing more frequent washing of the pavement.

However, in return it wants businesses to deal with their trade waste properly and keep reasonable displays on the pavement which do not hinder cleansing operations.

She said 22 duty of care notices had been issued to Cowley Road businesses for failing to do this, 14 of which had not been complied with.

John Tanner, the council’s executive member for a cleaner, greener Oxford, said: “We are in the middle of a Cleaner, Greener campaign in East Oxford to begin to tidy up in the same way as we have improved the city centre and Blackbird Leys.

“We want to work with the traders and the residents to make Cowley Road spick and span but without losing its ethnic charms.

“Improvements can be made when residents and traders work together with the council.”

The council said it had had no reports of grease on the road but would take prompt action to rectify any problems.

Anyone with complaints about the state of the road should contact the council on 01865 249811.

  • CITY council cleaning crews are out in Cowley Road at 6am to clean up fast food wrappers, cartons and other rubbish left by late-night revellers.

As litter and rubbish builds up during the day crews are sent again from the City Works depot, in Marsh Lane, Cowley, to make a second sweep along the street.

The council maintains a twice daily clean-up routine to ensure the street complies with the Government’s code of practice on litter and to prevent accumulations of rubbish.

Any reports of vomit, other bodily fluids and dog fouling are cleared within two hours if the problem is reported to the council that working day.