TROWBRIDGE councillors want Wiltshire Council to clean up its act over a lack of street cleaning in the town centre.

The issue has been raised at meetings after complaints from residents with councillors feeling that the centre of the county town has been neglected by road sweepers and litter pickers.

Trowbridge town clerk Lance Allan said after sending a letter to Cllr Whitehead, a meeting to discuss the matter has been arranged and hopes a solution is found sooner rather than later.“We have had a few complaints and I know a few letters have been sent into the newspaper about litter in the town.

He said: “It has been fairly evident from looking at the state of the streets that they have not been sweeping as often as previously.

“Hopefully Wiltshire Council will start talking to us about taking over the services and to return the street cleaning to the levels that people expect. There are discussions about the town council adding extra services on top of what is already offered but what I am concerned about is that there would be two councils paying the contractors to essentially do the same job.“Ideally we want a situation where one council is in charge and looking after the contractors and decide the priorities of cleaning and the sooner the town council takes over the better.”

Wiltshire Council says it increased spending on litter collection by £500,000 to £2.5million this year and that in Trowbridge town centre in particular, no changes have been made to the presence of a street cleaner, who carries out a daily inspection.

Cllr Whitehead added that if people complain via the MyWiltshire app regarding litter, action can be taken to the areas directly affected.

He said: “It is very disappointing that people feel it is acceptable to discard litter in Wiltshire.“In Trowbridge, the barrow operative is contracted to be in the town daily – as they were before. We address other litter issues after reports from local people or organisation. This is done to ensure we focus on cleaning dirty streets, and don’t waste time and money on streets which don’t need it.

“The key message is that if we all do our bit by not littering our streets and get involved by keeping our communities clean we can make a big difference. Dropping litter is unacceptable.”

Report problems at pages.wiltshire.gov.uk/report.