A FACEBOOK post by police in Oldham, intended to promote the work of the Violence Reduction Team, has been bombarded by comments on litter.

Taking to Facebook on Tuesday GMP Oldham wrote: “Police Sergeant Craven, police constable Mahmood, police community support officer Khan and Dave Gilbride from the Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Team have visited Ramadan Radio Oldham to inform listeners about partnership work.”

The overshadowed message was posted alongside a photo of two of the officers and Dave Gilbride standing on the side of a road strewn with litter.

The rubbish appears to have attracted the most attention from Facebook users who have left more than 100 comments.

One commenter wrote: “Typical Oldham. The streets are disgusting. It’s the residents themselves that throw rubbish on the streets. No respect for where they live.

“It must be heartbreaking for the volunteers who clean the streets up, as there soon full of rubbish again. Vicious circle.”

Another added: “That looks terrible. In Mossley the residents get together and have community clean ups, there was one last weekend. We also dig flower beds and seed them.

“Surely the local residents could easily do this?”

A third said: “They probably didn't even notice how awful it looks, it’s like the longer stuff like this goes on, it become invisible, unseen and normal to everyone around.”

The post was seemingly meant to champion the work of the Violence Reduction Unit, which brings together Greater Manchester police, the national probation service, health and education professionals, youth justice and local authorities to address the underlying causes of violent crime.

In January, The Oldham Times launched a campaign, along with our new daily edition, in a bid to stamp out the long-standing issue of littering across the borough.

Residents can report incidences of fly-tipping at www.oldham.gov.uk/flytipping.