8 AUGUST 2007:   HARROGATE district has been found to be exceedingly clean in the latest report from ENCAMS.  Compared with the national position of an average score of 47%, Harrogate Borough Council has scored 56% on all aspects of cleanliness across all areas of open space under its control.  The report also showed that open space not under its control was also either 'good' or 'satisfactory'.

 

Since 2001, the Government has commissioned ENCAMS to undertake the annual Local Environmental Quality Survey of England, to provide the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs with relevant information on the state of the local environment.  Over 170 local authorities were surveyed this year.

 

This is an important survey which helps the Government get a handle on how councils are performing under the Cleaner, Safer, Greener agenda, but Councillor Richard Cooper, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services says that local public opinion matters more.  "A recent statutory satisfaction survey of residents, which all councils across North Yorkshire had to carry out, showed that this district has the highest satisfaction rate among residents in the county on the cleanliness of their own area.  To score so high locally as well as nationally is a 'thumbs up' for the council's hard working street cleaning teams.  However, there are areas we need to address, which include gum and smoking litter.

 

"We must acknowledge that litter does not just appear.  It is generated by human beings and so ultimately we all bear the responsibility for keeping our district clean and deserve the plaudits in this report.  The council spends tens of thousands sweeping the streets and picking up litter all paid for by the council taxpayer.  By encouraging friends, family, schoolchildren and the wider public to be conscious of how they dispose of litter we can help reduce this ongoing bill and do our bit to make our outstanding local environment ever better."  ENDS