Keeping the city centre spic and span will be "neigh" problem for Bradford's new team of litter busters.

For councillors have awarded a key cleansing contract to four work horses from Bradford Industrial Museum.

Gentle giants Norman and William, both Shires, and Rusty and Henry, who are Clydesdales, will clop through the streets six days a week using their horsepower to help collect a mountain of rubbish.

And they will be making equine history as the first four-legged workers to win a multi-thousand pound contract from their own Council.

The horses' future had been uncertain because it costs thousands of pounds a year to keep them.

They have been contributing towards their living expenses by carrying out forestry work and other jobs around the country - but they have had to travel miles to bring home the bread.

Now they can be at work in just ten minutes and are a double boost for the city because shoppers and visitors love to see them.

The chairman of Bradford Council's arts, museums and libraries committee, Councillor Ron Kitson, said: "They love it because they are bred as working horses and they do the job brilliantly.

"The long journeys to get to work previously took a lot of preparation.

"But they have now entered a new phase and their financial security has been strengthened by the securing of a year-long contract to service the litter bins."

He added: "They won't be wearing donkey jackets but, who knows, they might get their own trade union!"

Their job begins after tasty hay breakfasts and ends when the city centre litter bins have been emptied and the rubbish taken to the Harris Street cleansing depot. They are accompanied by Council employees who load their wagons with plastic bags of rubbish. Their work is just part of the district's overall cleansing contract being carried out in-house so it did not go out to tender.

The horses will also continue the existing summer contract to help water the city centre hanging baskets.

And the £32,000 a year they earn will help to keep the famous Industrial Museum admission-free. Attendances doubled during April and May after the Council decided to make it free. There were 1,775 visitors over the Spring Bank Holiday - 984 more than last year.

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