Milton Keynes' Streets Have Never Been Cleaner

2.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Sat 12th May 2007

The streets of Milton Keynes are cleaner and tidier than ever before, according to a national measure aimed at improving council services.

Hundreds of sample areas were selected at random during the year to discover the extent of litter, graffiti and fly-posting across the city. The survey showed that not only has Milton Keynes Council exceeded this year's government targets, but is also four years ahead of government targets set for 2010.

And the residents of Milton Keynes agree: a national survey revealed a leap in customer satisfaction from 54% in 2003 to 74% in 2006.

By comparison with 2004, Government-set Best Value Performance Indicators for Milton Keynes in 2006 found:

• litter problems down from 27% to 17%

• graffiti down from 14% to 8%,

• fly-posting down from 8% to just over 3%.

Liberal Democrat cabinet member for the environment, Douglas McCall, said:

"This is a completely objective test, covering all areas of the Borough including city estates, rural areas, parkland and the shopping centre. The results are a tribute to a great deal of hard work by council staff and by our contractors, Cory, and their staff.

"They demonstrate the effectiveness of the Liberal Democrat administration's commitment to making improving our environment one of our top priorities."