CUTS to Bradford Council’s street cleaning service are leaving some teams at “breaking point” - a Councillor has claimed.

In 2019 budget cuts led to changes in how the District’s street cleansing teams operate.

In the Bradford West area cleaning teams tackle litter on major roads each day, with rotas drawn up for when smaller roads and residential streets are cleaned.

On Monday evening members of Bradford Council’s Bradford West Area Committee were given an update on how the service has coped since the changes.

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A report to the committee said there had been fewer complaints about littering in many areas of the constituency, describing it as a “promising start.”

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Public complaints about litter in Bradford West fell from 341 in 2018 to 268 this year, according to the report.

And it also said the number of streets “failing to meet an acceptable standard” for litter had fallen slightly overall, with particular improvement in Manningham and the City ward.

The report added: “The new working patterns have been a major change for all staff and are still

bedding in.

“The first half of 2019/20 shows there are fewer complaints being reported than in the same period in the previous year.”

Stuart Russo, Performance Officer, said the budget cuts amounted to around 400 fewer hours of street cleaning per week. But he said despite the cuts, the team were coping, adding: “It has gone pretty well in terms of the direction of travel.”

But one Councillor questioned the report, claiming some streets hadn’t been cleaned for “months.”

Councillor Sarfraz Nazir (Lab, Manningham) said: “The report paints a pretty picture, but in terms of reality it is different.

“The main roads are getting done, but on the smaller roads teams are struggling. Things are at breaking point. The non priority roads don’t seem to be getting done at all. I know of streets that haven’t been done for months.

“This is the feeling amongst the Council staff I spoke to as well - the street cleaning service is struggling.

“The cuts have had a massive impact and streets are being missed out.”

He was told that a number of schemes were underway to try and change people’s behaviour, to prevent litter and fly tipping from happening in the first place.

The report reveals that so far this year 25 per cent of the streets in the City ward had “unacceptable” levels of litter. This was down from 37.5 per cent last year.

In the Manningham ward 16.67 per cent of streets failed to reach this level - down from 28.57 per cent last year.

The committee was also given an update about fly tipping in the area, with members told that on many inner city streets fly tipping was down to local residents, rather than people driving to the area to dump waste.

Officers said a number of fly tipping cases are currently working their way through the criminal justice system, with suspects due to appear in court in the new year.