One in 10 streets classed as dirty

Streets in Rochdale are cleaner than others in England but still one in 10 is classed as dirty.

Councils across the country are being urged to spend more on cleaning after a study found an “alarmingly high and dangerous” level of dirty streets and pavements in many areas.

A list of the filthiest places in the region, compiled from data published by the GMB union, showed 10 percent of Rochdale’s roads were found to be dirty with natural detritus and 7 percent have unacceptable levels of man-made litter.

Rochdale was ranked the 24th worst authority out of 43 in the North-West.

The litter is mainly the smoking, drinking and eating materials dropped by selfish people, but also includes dog-fouling not cleared up by irresponsible owners. Detritus is dust, soil, grit, and leaves, blossom and grass cuttings that have started to decompose.

Cabinet member for Environment and Leisure, Councillor David Clayton, said: "Most of the rubbish dropped on our streets is as a result of irresponsible behaviour by a small minority of people who seem to think it is acceptable to drop litter of all kinds.

"As an example on the Retail Park off Kingsway some people seem to think that it is ok to visit one of the takeaways - eat in their cars and then just toss the rubbish out.

"As a society we need to take this issue more seriously and clamp down on offenders much more heavily."

Labour spokesperson for Environment and Leisure, Councillor Jacqueline Beswick thinks priorities need to be looked at.

She said: “I am not surprised that one in 10 streets is dirty, obviously there are different reasons in different areas. But I think we need to re-look at priority areas, some areas are cleaned once a week and then when they have improved they aren’t re-visited and the results are then insufficient.”