AN Examiner campaign to clean up Huddersfield may get top-level backing.

Angry Labour councillors are to demand urgent action from Kirklees Council to clean up Huddersfield's tarnished image.

They are shocked that Huddersfield was forced to withdraw from July's Yorkshire in Bloom competition at the last minute.

Graffiti and litter blighted the town's chances of entering a serious bid.

The Examiner highlighted the issue with a series of articles over two weeks and called for action.

Labour group leader Clr Mehboob Khan has taken more than 75 pictures of filthy areas around the town and plans to use them to illustrate Labour concerns when the council meets tomorrow.

He is proposing a five-point action plan to get rid of unsightly litter and graffiti.

He says the Liberal Democrat and Green parties have allowed parts of Kirklees to fall into squalor.

Tomorrow he will demand that fly-tipped waste be removed within 24 hours and graffiti is cleaned up within 20 hours.

"I think the council has lost its vision of what it wants to do," he said.

He said litter had become one of the biggest concerns for Kirklees residents.

Funding the clean-ups, he said, was not the problem.

"There's enough money going into the department but it's all fragmented."

He suggested area managers be appointed who could co-ordinate urgently-needed clean-up operations.

"There needs to be a shake-up of how we look after residential areas."

Clr David Payne, Liberal Democrat Cabinet member responsible for the environment, said a number of measures had been introduced to clean the streets.

But he agreed with some of Clr Khan's concerns.

"To some extent it might be about working smarter rather than throwing more money at it. We recognise it's an important area."

New street cleaning teams have been introduced in Huddersfield and Dewsbury while two rapid response teams now tackle grot spots used by fly tippers.

And about £40,000 has been allocated to remove offensive and racist graffiti immediately.

"We are not complacent and we are committed to improving the service even further," said Clr Payne.

He said work had to be done to get people to use bins and take pride in the town.

"At the end of the day, the more people dump, the more we have to spend cleaning it up."

Ultimately, he said, council tax payers footed the bill.

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