Litter on the streets is one of the great irritants for many Bradford people. We receive countless letters about it here at the T&A, largely pointing out that it affects the morale of local residents and creates a poor impression for visitors to the city. In most people's book, clearing it up merits a high priority.

So it comes as something of a surprise to learn that although £4.7 million was allocated to spending on street cleaning last year, only £4.1 million was actually spent because the balance was redirected into the hard-pressed refuse and waste-collection services. Now members of the environment scrutiny committee have been told that £4.85 million will be needed for street-cleaning next year and that the budget should be protected.

And to discover whether or not council taxpayers are getting value for money, a team from the Audit Commission is to spent eight days looking at the way the street-cleaning service operates. That at least will let the people of Bradford know whether or not their money is being well-spent in this area.

However, there is another way of looking at these figures. The cost arises not because people pick up litter but because other people throw it down. If only more Bradfordians would learn to put their rubbish in one of the many bins provided for the purpose, or even take it home with them, the Council could save millions to spend on the many other important services which are having to do without the full funding they need.

Having a price put on litter creation in this way emphasises just how unacceptably anti-social it is.