FURIOUS residents say York's outer ring road and its feeder roads are being used as a rubbish dump.

Householders in Askham Lane have condemned the state of the verges running alongside its link with the A1237.

Resident Stephen Fenton said the area was regularly covered in rubbish and had become a popular spot to dump cars.

"It's a real mess," he said.

"The area never seems to get cleaned up. "It's attracting a lot of fly tipping."

Westfield ward councillor Andrew Waller, Lib Dem environment spokesman, said: "The litter on the ring road is a real bugbear with residents. The clear-up needs more than a six-monthly litter pick with just £900 being spent in between time on the whole of the A1237, A64 and A19 for the rest of the year.

"The image of York is being hurt by this neglect."

Coun Waller said budget cuts in cleansing over the last three years had seen public satisfaction with York's cleanliness fall to 47 per cent. But cleansing chief Coun Derek Smallwood said work had already got under way to clean the ring road.

"The ring road will be cleaned bit by bit," he said.

"We've already done the A1237 and are now starting on the feeder roads into it."

A spokesman for City of York Council said: "We've been aware of it (the ring road litter) for some time and we're working on measures to deal with the issue.

"We did clean the verges on the A1237 very recently so they have been much improved. Obviously the litter has built up again."

The spokesman said a comprehensive clean-up strategy was planned for the ring road in the next financial year.

Meanwhile, the council recently announced its new "Street Scene" service which was put into action across the city on Monday.

Under a new budget, which has resulted from the council's scrutiny process and the Best Value system, extra resources have been released to enhance various aspects of the city's street scene.

Updated: 09:48 Friday, March 28, 2003