County’s streets are cleanest in Wales

Feb 4 2010 by Judith Phillips, North Wales Weekly News

County’s streets are cleanest in Wales

CONWY county has cleaned up in a survey to find the most litter free streets in Wales.

The area came out top with inspectors sent out by the Keep Wales Tidy campaign to check on litter and general cleanliness. It achieved an overall score of 72.5% up five points on last year and above the Wales average of 66.87%.

Lyn Davies, Conwy’s street scene manager commented: “Cleansing work can be perceived as thankless but its importance to residents cannot be over emphasised. The improvement that pleases me most is the town centre cleanliness which has risen by 8% on last year’s figure.”

Conwy was one of 14 local authorities to have improved the cleanliness of their streets, eight councils failed to improve on last year’s results, and neighbouring Denbighshire had fallen short in its litter picking in comparison with last year’s survey.

But Assembly environment minister Jane Davidson said that overall she was encouraged by the trend towards cleaner streets.

“I am pleased to see that there has been an overall increase in the cleanliness of town centres across Wales. The presence of smoking related litter is still high, but I am encouraged that this and a number of litter issues are being tackled by a number of local authorities with the help of Keep Wales Tidy.”

Cllr Mike Priestley, Conwy’s cabinet member for the environment, said: “I’m delighted that Conwy has performed so well in this survey. I’d like to thank the street scene team for all their hard work, and also residents and visitors for disposing of their litter responsibly. It’s working together that has achieved these results.”

What do you think? Do you believe that Conwy has the cleanest streets in Wales? Or do you think even more could be done to ride them of litter? Write to the editor at North Weekly News, Vale Road, Llandudno Junction, LL31 9SL, or e-mail news.desk@northwalesnews.co.uk