Street cleaning in Slough is ‘failing’ with ‘overflowing bins’ and ‘smells across the town’, Labour councillors have claimed in a demand for action on littering and fly-tipping,

Labour opposition leader Pavitar Mann said a £71,000 ‘cut’ to the council’s street cleaning budget this year meant that residents have ‘lost confidence’ in the service. She said: “Our council staff do their best, under very difficult circumstances, but the service is failing and residents have lost confidence.

“We are seeing increasing complaints to councillors, dirty and overflowing bins, increasingly smells across the town, an increase in fly-tipping and a collapse of the street cleaning routine across the town.”

She added: “The Conservative administration’s claim their £71,000 cut to street cleaning this year would not result in a reduction in service is demonstrably untrue.”

READ MORE: Litter isn’t just the council’s problem says volunteer

Councillor Mann’s claims come in a call for the council to take action. She said she wants the council to identify ‘hotspots of litter’ in Slough where more litter bins are needed, and to bring in a ‘street cleaning taskforce’ to review street cleaning in the borough.

She also wants the street cleaning service to come under scrutiny from a committee of councillors.

And she wants Conservative councillor Gurcharan Manku – responsible for street cleaning – to give a written update on the impact of ‘environmental hit squads’ who can be called out to deal with litter and fly-tipping.

But councillor Manku said the Conservatives would vote to reject Labour’s proposals – defending the council’s street cleaning service. He told the Observer the council’s efforts on littering, fly-tipping and waste collection were improving. He said: “ We have a task force for fly-tipping – we have moved over 80 tonnes of fly-tipping in the last three months.

“There are schemes to reduce littering ward-by-ward. I am in contact with Slough Anti-litter Society and they are helping people to get involved.

“The participation in our food waste collection has increased to 30 per cent and it will keep increasing as we advertise it.”

READ MORE: Litter ‘left for weeks’ on streets of Slough, man complains

Councillor Manku said it was ‘absolutely false’ that the council had cut money from street cleaning, although he said the service was ‘looking for efficiency savings’.

The council’s budget approved in March this year said £71,000 would be ‘saved’ through ‘street cleansing improvements’.

Councillor Manku also accused Labour of having made Slough’s cleanliness worse when they ran the council through introducing measures such as fortnightly waste and recycling on alternating weeks. He said: “I’m not going to take lessons from these people that failed Slough for so many years. We are keeping Slough cleaner, greener and prosperous.”

Councillor Mann’s proposals are set to be debated at a full meeting on Thursday, September 26.