Cowley Road needs a thorough clean-up

On Monday, you reported on the sorry state of Cowley Road (Street of Shame).

Cowley Road is probably the worst in the city to keep clean, because of the high density of food outlets from The Plain up to Divinity Road.

The council claims that attention is given to that area twice a day.

If that is the case, then why is the grease so thick and so many cigarette ends and other objects are shown in the photographs in your report?

I know that it is people who throw these things on the pavement, instead of putting them in the litter bins, and sadly that even if you had bins every 20 yards, there would still be litter dropped. But that doesn’t account for the thick grease on the pavements, which has been there for months.

To show a man with a broom and a mechanical sweeper behind is nothing but a joke.

Proper cleaning materials are needed for a street like Cowley Road.

The shop owners of Cowley Road pay high council taxes and deserve a better service.

The pavements are the responsibility of the council and if someone should slip on the grease, as would be the same in winter with the snow, then tell me who would be liable?

To clean a street like this, proper cleaning materials should be used, and on a regular basis, not just sending a man out there with a litter-picker or a broom.

Maybe something will be done now that the justified complaint has gone to press and the traders on the Cowley Road get back their deserved custom.

The councillors can see fit to sanction the high pay awards given out to the authority’s senior officials.

It’s a pity some of that money wasn’t better spent on essential cleaning materials.

So much for a cleaner, greener Oxford. Start with it in Cowley Road.

Even Cowley Road itself cannot be swept properly by the large mechanical sweeper, because of the layout of the road, which doesn’t in itself help the situation either COLIN SMITH, (Former shop steward, cleansing department, Oxford City Council), George Moore Close, Donnington, Oxford