THE team who work on cleaning the streets, picking up litter and pulling up weeds around Trowbridge have won the hearts of local people and been praised for their work, after the town council spent £25,000 a year on a new street sweeper.

After the team from the town council came under fire in criticism posted online last week, people in Trowbridge have leapt to their defence.Although Wiutshire Council is responsible for street cleaning, town councillors chose to put their own money into keeping Trowbridge tidy, feeling it was a priority for locals.

Adrian Ingham, a member of a residents association group, commented: “Everybody is so quick to criticise but very few are actually willing to do anything themselves.

“Six years on a residents association taught me that.

“All my dealings with Trowbridge Town Council have been positive.”

Sara Owen said: “They do a wonderful job.

“I’m afraid in any town you won’t please all the people all the time.

“But they definitely do a great service for Trowbridge and I’m grateful.”

Barry Jones commented: “Trowbridge Town Council do a brilliant job, if we all do a little bit of helping out, litter, weeds outside your own place and even communal tidying then not only will this reduce their work load but make the people of the area slightly proud to live where they do. Positivity people,”

In the past six months, the Neighbourhood Services team, which is made up of supervisor Carl Ivin-Maddox, and groundsmen Marcus Almadi and Graham Drewitt, have focused on keeping roads in the town clean and weed free, as well cleaning graffiti off the walls of the multi-storey car park and signs in the town park.

Mr Ivin-Maddox

said: “It is so nice to see that people are glad about what they are spending their tax money on, and it is great they can visually see how it is being put to good use.

“We are just trying to look after the town and make it as clean and tidy as possible.”

Clare Lyall, head of service for cultural and neighbourhoods, said: “We are trying to improve the town for those people that live and work here and also for those that visit Trowbridge. We have received a lot of positive feedback from people who have paid visits to our town on how clean and looked it after it is, which is our main aim.”