Keeping Bradford tidy successfully has to be a partnership between the public and the Council. Ideally, if public attitudes were right there would be very little the authority would need to do. Litter wouldn't be there to be cleaned up because it wouldn't be dumped in the first place.

Sadly, it seems very difficult to get that concept across to the minority of people who simply refuse to grasp the idea of putting their litter in bins and disposing of larger unwanted items by either taking them to Council tips or asking for them to be collected from their homes. Instead they throw their rubbish away without any thought for the environment or for the appearance of the district in which they live.

One excellent way of promoting the anti-litter message, particularly to children, is to organise community clean-ups of the sort organised by Elizabeth Hellmich for the Scotchman Road playing fields area of Bradford with the help of the SAFE project and Bradford West Area Co-ordinator's Office.

What a pity, then, that they were let down by Council cleansing staff who were supposed to bring a truck, gloves, litter pickers and bags to help them but failed to turn up.

Full marks to Mrs Hellmich and her colleagues for getting their team of volunteers of all ages fired up and ready for action and for deciding to go ahead with the clean-up nevertheless. No marks on this occasion to the Cleansing Department, who hopefully will tighten up their procedures so that in future they don't let down their partners in the community.