Litter in Slough isn’t just the council’s responsibility, a leading volunteer has said as she issued a plea to residents to tidy up after themselves.

Slough resident Danial Ciecielag last week criticised Slough Borough Council, claiming litter had been left on the street ‘for weeks'.

But Tirza Meinema of the Slough Anti-Litter Society said residents need to take responsibility for keeping the town clean too. She told the Observer: “From our perspective we think the council has its responsibilities and we as residents have our responsibilities as well.

“It’s not just the council’s fault or the residents’ fault. The council needs to provide bins and empty them. The council needs to deal with fly-tipping and they need to try to catch those people who are doing the fly-tipping. But we can’t just put everything on the council.”

But Ms Meinema added that sometimes the council could be used as a ‘scapegoat’ for problems caused by people not cleaning up after themselves.

She said: “Sometimes it seems that people are using the council as a personal cleanup crew. They’re just not taking personal responsibility. They’re sitting in the park maybe having a picnic and then just standing up and leaving their rubbish there.”

Her comments come after one Slough resident said the council should do more to clean up litter.

Daniel Ciecielag, 42, of Princes Street complained that a child had cut herself after cutting herself on a can left lying in the street for weeks. And he told the Observer he believed the council had cut back on street cleaning, despite increasing council tax.

He said: “The council used to come once a week. Shop owners say they have to clean the street in front of their shops by themselves because no one from the council comes anymore.”

The resident added: “People pay their council tax for this – it rose in April and nothing is being done. In my opinion the council is just wasting money.”

But Ms Meinema said the council’s street cleaning services would come under more pressure if the burden was left entirely on its shoulders. She said: “If we make the council responsible for all of this people get lazier and lazier and then the council will have to spend even more on it and we will have to pay even more council tax.”

Slough Borough Council told the Observer it aims to clean larger estates in the town monthly, whereas smaller ones are cleaned every six to eight weeks – ‘or more frequently if there is a specific need'. But it didn’t say whether this was a reduction on its previous service.

The council also said it aims to respond to litter complaints within 48 hours after they have been reported. And it said its budget for street cleaning this year is just under £1.5 million – and that the majority of this is spent on staff and vehicles to collect the litter.