A fifth of Rochdale's streets are dirty

Reporter: Jan Harwood
Date online: 10 July 2007

19% of the relevant land and highways in Rochdale has been assessed as having combined deposits of litter and debris according to a new report by GMB on the Audit Commission's figures for the year 2005/6. Rochdale ranks in the top third in the UK's dirtiest streets, although it is nowhere near as bad as Havering in London, which has the dirtiest streets in the UK at 44%.

Rochdale's streets are comparatively cleaner than Oldham's, 21% of which are dirty, but not as clean as those in Manchester (18%) or Bury (12%).

Of the 350 English councils for which information is available Rochdale ranked 107th dirtiest, or alternatively 243rd cleanest.

These figures were ranked by GMB, Britain's public sector union, from data supplied by Rochdale Council and other local authorities across the UK to the Audit Commission for 2005/6. They are published in the Local Government Compendium covering Best Value Performance Indicators 2005/6.

Half of UK towns have 14% or more of their streets dirty and half have 86% or more of their streets clean.

The top twenty areas with the dirtiest streets are (% of streets dirty): Havering 44.0%, Greenwich 43.0%, Hillington 43.0%, South Somerset 43.0%, Stoke-on-Trent 40.0%, Hounslow 39.0%, Newham 38.0%, Barking and Dagenham 37.7%, Haringey 37.1, Croydon 37.0%, Ealing 36.5%, Hackney 36.0%, Edinburgh 35.0%, West Wiltshire 34.1%, Glasgow 34.0%, Coventry 33.0%, Horsham 33.0%, Wigan 32.4%, Harrow 31.0%, Richmond 31.0%.

The top twenty areas with the cleanest streets are: Sevenoaks 0.0%, West Dorset 0.1%, Chesterfield 0.2%, Stratford-on-Avon 1.2%, Craven 1.3%, Merthyr Tydfil, 1.3%, East Riding 1.4%, Monmouthshire 1.5%, Carrick 2.0%, Wrexham 2.0%, Isle of Wight 2.0%, Oadby 2.0%, Berwick 2.0%, Mid Beds 2.1%, Ceredigion 2.1%, Winchester 2.2%, Castle Morpeth 2.3%, Pembrokeshire 2.6%, Mid Devon 2.7% and Caerphilly 2.8%.

Brian Strutton, GMB National Secretary said, "GMB supports the Labour Government's commitment to Healthy Communities. We therefore welcome the improvements in street cleaning shown by many councils in this survey.

"However, there is also considerable scope for improvement, a task that Hazel Blears, in her new role leading up the communities and local government department, will no doubt get to grips with."