I HAVE complained many times in previous letters to the Oxford Mail about our dirty streets, and about how we seldom ever see a man with a broom.

Well, surprise, surprise: we on Oxford’s Boundary Brook Estate – like many other parts of the city – are getting a deep clean.

Yes, from today, we are going to see a man with a broom, a mechanical sweeper and a gully-cleaning machine.

It’s going to take four days to clean our estate, which is only a small one. In fact, if it were done on a regular basis, by a man with a broom, shovel and barrow, the whole estate could be covered in a day.

But, please note, readers, when this operation is going to take place. Autumn is upon us and the leaves will be falling. So, in a short while, after this blitz has taken place, George Moore Close especially will be full of leaves.

The timing doesn’t make sense – along with many other council systems.

The city’s boundaries are much larger than they were 20 years ago – with the building of Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys and the inclusion of those parts of Rose Hill, Minchery Farm, Wood Farm, Barton and Jordan Hill, which were previously outside the city.

However, now the city workforce is half the size it was then, how can staff be expected to do a first-class job?

COLIN SMITH, George Moore Close, Donnington, Oxford