It's a shame for Bradford that it finds itself lumped together with the rest of Yorkshire in a new study which claims that half of the county's streets are unclean. The study on behalf of Keep Britain Tidy placed Yorkshire third from the bottom in a league table of general street scruffiness. This is bound to reflect on Bradford, as a major Yorkshire city.

Yet a great deal of work has gone on here to improve matters. As Ian Bairstow, head of the Council's Street Scene says, the regional statistics can't reflect the effort which has been put into cleaning up the city's streets. In 2003/4, 41 per cent of them were below the acceptable standard of cleanliness. By November of last year that figure had dropped to just 28 per cent. In the district's six worst areas for litter the number of streets below standard was halved to 34 per cent.

Much has been happening, backed by the Telegraph & Argus's "Bin It" campaign. Street-cleansing teams are out from early morning until late at night. The Council has taken advantage of new legislation to make fast-food outlets responsible for the litter their customers create. A controversial "zero tolerance" policy has made it plain that the authorities will not tolerate even the smallest item of litter being dropped. And there is more to come with "spring-cleaning" initiatives planned for across the district in the next few months to tackle stubbornly-scruffy nooks and crannies.

The message is getting across in Bradford. It is time that the rest of Yorkshire started to catch up.