An empty piece of land in the middle of a Bicester housing estate is an accident waiting to happen, according to a worried father-of-two.

Dave Clack, of Conifer Drive, says the plot in the centre of the Southwold estate is covered in broken glass and pieces of wire.

The land, which is next to a parade of shops and close to a primary school, was fenced off by its anonymous owners earlier this year.

Local people were upset when the wire fence went up, because it stopped the land being used as an informal car park and a play area.

And Bicester town councillors, who had maintained the land for 12 years, believing it was owned by the council, were forced to pay £1,200 to move a youth shelter off the site.

Mr Clack, who is chairman of Southwold Primary School's governors, said: "Some of the locals have taken exception to the posts - they have all been taken out and laid on the ground. Now the wire is hidden by the grass.

"Now all the kids have broken up for the summer holidays and there's broken glass in there, tin cans and all this wire, it's not long before someone is going to get hurt.

"Someone must be responsible.

"It would be much better if they hadn't have put the fence up at all.

"We're proud of Southwold, it's a great school and we don't want to see any of the kids injured.

"It was fair enough when you could see the fence, but you now can't see the fence, the posts or the glass.

"If you get a toddler walking across there, someone could be hurt.

"It's only a matter of time before someone gets injured."

Hazel Graham, a chartered valuation surveyor acting on behalf of the site's owners, said she could not disclose who owned the land or what they intended to do with it.

But she said she had visited the site recently and reported the vandalism of the fence to police.

She said: "Our absentee landowner is being victimised here.

"I have no doubt that whoever is hell-bent to do this damage will do it again.

"This must have been systematic damage. Every post has been pulled out of the ground.

"People watched that, but nobody chose to be public-spirited enough to call the police and get it stopped.

"It's some sort of conspiracy. It's not as if anyone is deprived of a facility. There's acres and acres of public open space."

Ms Graham added that she was making arrangements to repair the fence and remove the broken glass from the land.

And she also asked the Oxford Mail to pass on her contact details to Mr Clack and any other concerned residents.

She added: "We're responsible land- owners."