Arun rubbishes dirty streets claim

Director of services Colin Rogers rubbished the findings '“ by the GMB trade union.

The report claimed that figures released to the Audit Commission by Arun Council for the year 2004/5 showed that 50 per cent of the land and highways in the district assessed were dirty.

The next dirtiest district, according to the report, was West Wiltshire, where 41 per cent of the streets were classed as dirty.

Craven, Sevenoaks and West Dorset were listed as the areas with the cleanest streets, the result for Craven stating that 0 per cent of its streets were dirty.

"For Arun to be at the top of the list of having the dirtiest streets in England is not accurate or correct," said Mr Rogers.

"I think it's a case of either ourselves being far too harsh on ourselves in our assessment or other local authorities not being self-critical enough.

"I think Arun is a clean district and the reality is that we are one of the cleaner districts in the country, and not one of the dirtiest.

"The evidence is there for everyone to see when they walk down the street.

"I'm not saying that we are perfect but to say that we are the dirtiest in England is ridiculous."

Mr Rogers explained that Arun's own inspectors compiled the data for the district every four months, as part of the national best value performance indicators, a national measure of the performance of local authorities set by the government.

At each survey, Arun's inspectors assess 300 different sites across the district, including residential, parkland and industrial land.

Mr Rogers felt the council's inspectors had been marking the streets harshly. "We haven't so much shot ourselves in the foot as machine-gunned ourselves," he said.

Mr Rogers said that to keep Arun clean took three elements '“ a good contractor to keep sites clean, a responsible public and decent enforcement.