A NEW high-visibility street-cleaning service is being rolled out across York, following a successful pilot in the west of the city.

City of York Council is this week beginning the expansion of its front-line Neighbourhood Pride service, across all wards in the city.

The council's environment boss Andrew Waller said it was the next step of the council's drive for cleaner streets.

He said if York met a cleanliness target this year, it could land a £262,000 Government grant.

But opposition councillors said it was a "cynical election ploy" to roll the scheme out now, and claimed lack of preparation could make the venture "disastrous".

Ruth Potter, Labour's deputy leader, said: "Residents deserve a high- quality cleaning service, not a botched job rushed through in time for the elections."

Coun Waller said the national target which measures the amount of litter, leaves, blossom etc in the street had been improving year on year thanks to York Pride, since it was introduced four years ago.

He said the number of streets found with litter or detritus had fallen from 30 per cent to 20 per cent. The council is aiming to get that down to 17 per cent, and achieved 15 per cent during the pilot scheme in west York.

Coun Waller, executive member for neighbourhood services said: "The streets in York have been getting cleaner year on year since we introduced York Pride, and the next step is the roll out of barrow sweeping.

"With this new target, we want to make sure that the streets are even cleaner, and collect this grant to invest in services in the city, but we cannot afford to delay.

"By rolling out the successful barrow sweeping pilot across the rest of the city, and giving it a month to bed in, I am confident that the first measurements of street cleanliness in June will show that we are on course."

He said it was important to roll out the service now, to get littler levels down by June when street cleanliness was measured.

Coun Potter said Labour had been calling for streets to be hand-cleaned for some time.

She said: "People have needed a city-wide street cleaning service for years, and only now in election time do the Liberal Democrat's actually start doing the job they should have been doing all along."