Haringey Labour’s record on street cleaning has been shown to be seriously lacking for the second year in a row, as Haringey Council’s own annual performance report shows that the Council missed its own target for local street and environment cleanliness by a greater margin than last year.

Haringey Council brings in an independent surveyor to assess its success in meeting its street cleaning targets. The survey assesses how many of the streets it examines do not meet national standards of cleanliness. The Environmental Campaigns (ENCAMS) survey “provided disappointing results with an increase to 37% in 2005/06 from 32% in 2004/05… The 2005/06 target of 30% was missed by a significant margin”.

Labour’s recent election campaign in the borough was not shy about their performance on street cleaning, claiming that, “Labour has an excellent record on improving street cleaning in Haringey. Independent surveys show that relative to the rest of London our streets are getting cleaner and cleaner”. These claims have been called into question by the Lib Dems.

Lib Dem spokesperson for the Environment Councillor Martin Newton comments:

“While Labour are blowing their own trumpets and boldly proclaiming that they have an excellent record on street cleaning, the truth is that they miss their targets year after year, and allow standards to slide.”