THE filthy state of some of the borough's streets is down to a lack of local authority investment, council leader Chris Robbins has admitted.

Labour's Cllr Robbins, who took over the leadership in May, has pledged to increase the amount of money the council currently spends on its street cleansing services, which comes under the portfolio of Lib Dem Bob Belam.

He said: “We have a long way to go until we have got our streets to the point where they are in an acceptable condition to the people of this borough.

“Other boroughs have much cleaner streets because they have invested more than us, there is a direct relationship between the money going in and how clean the streets are.

“I don't think over the years we have invested the way we should have done – we have got to up our game.”

Cllr Robbins said more cash would enable a better service, and would allow more weekend working.

He said contractor Kier, which was heavily criticised by residents for a perceived deterioration in the service after taking over the contract last summer, had improved, but “could still do a lot better.”

The council's contract with Kier is currently worth more than £6m a year.

Cllr Robbins said the amount of extra investment has yet to be determined, but believed any increase can be funded by the ongoing efficiency review, which aims to save the council £23.7m over three years.

Cllr Bob Belam said he could improve the service with an extra £1m, but is sceptical extra investment can be made without cutting services or increasing council tax.

He said: “If I want to spend another £700,000 a year on the contract it would increase council tax by £10 per household.”

Cllr Belam said Cllr Robbins is criticising street cleansing services in the run up to the election as it is a Lib Dem portfolio.

He said outsourcing the contract to Kier has improved the service and enabled costs to be more easily controlled, and is confident the next cleaning inspection results will show an improvement.

The council spent more than £830,000 last year on measures to cleanup the borough, including the Wipe It Out campaign, aimed at combating Flytipping.