An amazing 250,000 tonnes of rubbish are plucked each year from Bradford's roads, paths, homes and businesses. From chewing gum to cigarette butts and crisp packets to burger wrappers, Bradford Council's army of 500 binmen, cleansers, and road sweepers fight a daily war against grime. Charles Heslett reports on their efforts.

The outlay on litter-busting in the area is a whopping £9.5 million - but much of that could be slashed if people took a more responsible approach.

That's the view of Council cleansing staff who will launch a week-long litter blitz, backed by the Telegraph & Argus, next week.

The operation to clear litter across Bradford is massive. To get its staff around the city's hundreds and hundreds of miles of roads and footpaths, the cleansing department has a fleet of about 100 specialist vehicles.

These range from refuse collection trucks for the daily bin rounds to pick-up trucks for town centre litter collection from waste paper bins.

In Bradford's city centre alone at least six of these vans leave at the end of every day filled with litter. Nearer to the ground there are the large street sweepers and gulley vans, which keep the district's 84,403 roadside drains free from obstructions.

Smaller mechanised street sweepers provide support for the army of street sweepers and now even a horse-drawn dust cart provides ecologically friendly rubbish removal in Bradford's town centre.

While the refuse trucks work five days a week on a shift basis, the rest of the fleet bar the horses see some sort of action seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Businesses are also targeted by the department's Trade Waste Services, now a commercial venture, with nearly 5,000 customers.

Cleansing enforcement and contractor performance officer Kishore Patel said different types of rubbish presented different cleansing problems for each section of the department.

"Chewing gum is the biggest problem in the city centres, especially outside some shops," he said.

"We've had special gum bins operating in these trouble spots to try to combat the problem. But we still have to use jets to blast it off the pavements, which is time-consuming and costly.

"Cigarette ends are another continuing problem but different to chewing gum as many companies should provide bins for their employees to put them in. The onus is on the business.

"Enforcement officers can issue £25 fixed penalty notices to individuals who we catch littering, which is against the law. Usually it is motorists who throw cigarettes out of their window. We note the car's registration and send them a notice."

But most of the money used to pay for the city's cleansing service picking up carelessly discarded rubbish could be saved instead if the public and business simply binned all their refuse.

Bradford Council's senior cleansing officer Ray Garland said it was a matter of educating people about litter.

He said: "All of the cleansing staff take pride in what they do but it really is dispiriting when people just drop litter in front of you.

"It seems to have got worse in the last 20 years or so. It maybe something to do with the fact that we live in a more throw-away society."

He said as well as £9.5 million being spent on the city's cleansing contract a further £7.5 million went on the disposal of the waste collected. He said he had various deterrents to dissuade litter dumpers, including the power to issue £25 fixed penalty fines. Businesses could be fined up to £20,000 if they breach disposal regulations.

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