OXFORD’S residents are being urged to keep the party spirit of 2012 alive this year.

A total of 85 street parties were held across the city last year as people celebrated the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and London Olympics, but Oxford Streets for People is continuing its campaign to get neighbours together.

And campaign spokesman Richard Bradley believes there doesn’t need to be an excuse to hold a street party.

He said: “With the Olympics and the jubilee, last year was fantastic.

“I think this year we will have another good one because people are now recognising that street parties are a good thing to do.

“Our feedback from people who held a street party for the first time last year was that they thought it was fantastic and a lot of people got to know their neighbours than they had done before.

“I know a lot of people have said they will do it again and we are encouraging them to do so.”

Mr Bradley, of Headington Quarry, said most street parties are held either in September or early summer before people go away on holiday.

But he had heard of some streets organising them as late as December.

Oxford Streets for People is organised by Oxford Civic Society and supported by the Oxford Mail, and has been going for five years.

When it was launched in 2008, there were only eight street parties held across the city.

Mr Bradley said: “Closing a street is very straightforward. For the last few years Oxford City Council has been very cooperative. It just requires a simple form to be filled in six weeks beforehand.”

Road closures are organised by the city council, which doesn’t charge to arrange it, and there is no public liability insurance for hosting a street party.

For more information, visit oxstreets.org.uk or oxford.gov.uk/PageRender/decB/Street Parties.htm