70 per cent of council streets are cleaner than Rochdale

Seventy per cent of local authority streets are cleaner than Rochdale, according to the latest figures for clean streets in Britain.

The study, carried out by GMB trade union has collated data supplied by the 351 councils in England to the Audit Commission on land and highways that were assessed as having unacceptable levels of rubbish.

Topping the table with the cleanest streets in England was Sevenoaks in Kent. Rochdale came 246th out of 351 councils with 16 per cent of its streets assessed as dirty.

Commenting on the rankings, Councillor Ibrar Khan, who has consistently complained about unacceptable levels of rubbish in Rochdale, said that the council needed to invest more money in tackling this problem.

“If you happen to live in an area in Rochdale where there are high levels of fly tipping and litter then this seriously affects your quality of life,” he says. “I am passionate about making our streets cleaner.”

In the North West, Rochdale came 27th out of 43 councils finishing above Bury, Bolton and Oldham in Greater Manchester. Stockport, rated the worst of all North West councils with 24 per cent of its streets assessed as dirty.

Paul McCarthy, GMB Regional Secretary added: “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.”

These figures were ranked by GMB, Britain’s public sector union, from data supplied by local authorities themselves to the Audit Commission for 2004/5. They are published in the Local Government Compendium covering Best Value Performance Indicators 2004/5.

Date article online: 08/05/2008