Litter problems need to pick up

OLDHAM’S streets are blighted by unsatisfactory amounts of litter, according to a Government-commissioned survey.

There are also unsatisfactory levels of fallen leaves and grit, which make areas look grubby and uncared for.

However, the borough received a “good” rating for the lack of graffiti, fly-posting and fly-tipping.

The snapshot of the borough’s cleanliness was carried out during 2007/08 by the the Keep Britain Tidy Campaign for the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs.

All local authorities in England have been visited in the last two years and received ratings of good, satisfactory, unsatisfactory or poor for different areas.

Peter Rafferty, Oldham’s group manager for Street Scene, said figures showed the number of unsatisfactory streets had fallen from 20 per cent in 2006/07 to 9 per cent in July ’08.

It costs £3 million a year to tackle the likes of litter, fly-tipping, graffiti and fly posting in the borough.

Mr Rafferty added: “It’s an awful lot of money that could be spent on more worthy causes.

“That’s why it is so important to get litter down because people are literally throwing money away.

“We are moving in the right direction but there is still an awful lot more to do.”

A total of 250 fixed penalty notices were handed out in the borough between April and August, this year, for environment offences ranging from dog fouling to fly-posting, including 136 for littering.

In that period, offenders paid about £13,000 in fines.

More than half of councils surveyed were blighted by unsatisfactory levels of litter.

Phil Barton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “The results show that more needs to be done.”