COUNCIL officers have taken to the streets in their first steps on a mission to clean up the city.

City of York Council's street environment officers went on "walkabout" for the first time today.

They have been appointed as part of York's Pride In The City campaign, and have been termed a "radical development" by council leader Steve Galloway.

He said: "The team will be the public face in many ways of the council in local neighbourhoods.

"They will liaise with representatives of different departments of the council, and will be an important link between local residents and officials.

"But critically their role is to ensure that problems of cleansing, road surfaces and other street-level council services are dealt with, ideally before local residents even realise that there is an issue."

The team will be officially launched on Monday when the six officers take to the streets in their uniforms and energy-efficient SMART cars.

The city will be split into six sections, with street environment officers dedicated to work in specific wards.

There they will be expected to resolve problems identified during "walkabouts" of the area.

Each officer will work closely with ward committees, the police and the Safer York Partnership to improve the city's environment.

A key role will be to work with the community to improve the physical standards of public spaces and private areas, which are visible or accessible to the public.

They will be able to draw on the expertise of planning, building control, environmental protection and cleansing officers to tackle problems.

Zoe Burns, head of the street environment service, said: "The street environment officers will work at the heart of their local community to tackle issues like graffiti removal and fly-posting, litter control, abandoned cars and public health nuisance.

"The officers won't be able to solve all the street problems themselves, but they will take responsibility for ensuring that any issues which are reported to them are dealt with as soon as possible."

From Monday residents can raise issues with the officers by phoning 01904 551551 or emailing street.environment@york.gov.uk

Updated: 14:20 Thursday, September 25, 2003