GMB says Britain’s streets are getting cleaner but calls for some councils to employ more street cleaners, part funded by a levy on fast food outlets, to raise cleaning standards up to the best.

The area with the cleanest streets in West Midlands was Oswestry with 98.2% assessed as clean in a report published by the Audit Commission covering the 12 months period to 31 March 2007. Stratford-on-Avon and Malvern Hills were next with 97.9% and 97.7% clean followed by South Shropshire with 3% dirty streets.

In Birmingham 26.1% of the streets were assessed as dirty which put this area at the bottom of the West Midland league for the council with the cleanest streets in the region. Coventry was the second dirtiest city with 20.2% dirty streets closely followed by Nuneaton and Bedworth with 20% not clean.

Sevenoaks had the cleanest streets in England where 100% were assessed as clean. Next with 99.6% clean was West Dorset followed by Hart in Hampshire with 99.2% clean. Haringey had the dirtiest streets in England where 40.1% were assessed as dirty. Next was Runnymede with 39% dirty followed by Havering at 38%.

The figures for all 34 councils in the West Midlands are set out below. The figures are for the 12 months to 31 March 2007 and were supplied by the councils themselves to the Audit Commission. The figures were published as the Best Value Performance Indicator 2006/7 in the Audit Commission Local Government Compendium. They were ranked by GMB from the cleanest to the dirtiest. The figures for all the councils in England, Wales and Scotland are set out on the GMB website at the foot of this release.

Ranking of Clean Streets in the West Midlands Region

Joe Morgan, GMB Regional Secretary said, “Overall we are seeing a 14% improvement in streets cleanliness across England in the last year. This is good news for our environment and it is a testament to local councils and their street cleaners.

But there are still too many councils who are not putting enough effort and resources into keeping their streets clean – and that has got to change. They need to employ more street cleaners. This could be part funded by a levy on fast food outlets where litter originating from their premises is so much of the problem.”

Ends

Contact: Joe Morgan, GMB Regional Secretary on 0121 550 4888 or mobile 07968 064 465 or GMB Press Office: Steve Pryle on 07921 289880 or Rose Conroy on 07974 251823.

Notes to Editors:

The England data comes from Best Value Performance Indicator 199a, the percentage of relevant land and highways that is assessed as having combined deposits of litter and detritus that fall below an acceptable level.

‘Litter’ is defined for the purpose of this indicator as synthetic material associated with smoking, drinking and eating discarded by the public or spilt during waste management operations.

‘Detritus’ is defined for the purpose of this indicator as dust, mud, soil, grit, gravel, stones, rotted leaf and vegetable residues and fragments of twigs, glass and plastic.

An acceptable level of litter is taken as Grade A, B+ or B as defined by a 7 point grading system developed for this indicator.

Grade A – free of litter and refuse

Grade B – predominantly free of litter and refuse except for some small items

Grade C – widespread distribution of litter and refuse with minor accumulations

Grade D – heavily littered with significant accumulations.

Further details, with photographs, can be found here: www.leq-bvpi.com/?Section=litter

An acceptable level of detritus is taken as Grade A, B+ or B as defined by a similar 7 point grading system as that used above.

Grade A – free of detritus

Grade B – predominantly free of detritus except for some light scattering

Grade C – widespread distribution of detritus with minor accumulations

Grade D –extensively covered with detritus with significant accumulations.

Intermediate grades of B+, B/C and C- are also used for detritus and litter classifications

Further details, with photographs, can be found here: www.leq-bvpi.com/?Section=detritus

Land is surveyed on at least 300 sites during each of the three seasonal periods, April-July, August-November and December-March, giving a minimum total of 900 sites annually.