RESPONDING to concerns that Barry's streets are getting dirtier, a councillor has said he wants to clear the issue up.

The Vale of Glamorgan's Cabinet Member for Visible and Leisure Services Gwyn John has responded to claims that a recent Keep Wales Tidy survey showed that Barry's streets were becoming less clean saying that in fact the report is not "all doom and gloom".

Speaking about the Keep Wales Tidy survey - conducted in December and comprising a 6 per cent survey sample of all the adopted streets in the Vale - Cllr John explained that "this particular report featured a slight error in that one of the streets reported as being littered was not the responsibility of the Vale of Glamorgan Council".

Continuing on to explain that the report's key findings show "a significant improvement in the cleanliness of the streets throughout the Vale", Cllr John said: "The report then identifies an increase in the number of streets found to have litter on them with a decrease to the number of streets with minor accumulations of litter.

"Most pleasingly no heavily littered streets were recorded in either this or last year’s surveys.

"This longer term trend comparison remains one towards improvement, with Keep Wales Tidy advising of improvements of particular note in dog fouling, graffiti, domestic and 'other' litter.

"While I would concede that this small representative survey does show a reduction in the overall cleanliness indicator for the Vale when compared to 2013/14, which we are taking seriously, it is certainly not all doom and gloom for this council and our residents."

Referring to remarks made by Councillor Ian Johnson who warned that news the streets are getting dirtier is "before substantial cuts are made to our street cleaning budget and we feel the effects of charging for bulky objects", Cllr John said: "Whilst in no way wanting to suggest that future difficult decisions on how we balance the budget to ensure front line services are maintained will not impact on our residents I believe that Cllr Johnson risks creating a false impression of the cleanliness of Barry in particular at a time when we should surely all be using all our best efforts to promote Barry and everything it has to offer."

Cllr John added: "We will require the assistance of our residents going forward, to enable the cleanliness of our streets to be maintained in the light of our severe budgetary pressures, but to do so we will engage them responsibly, providing them with accurate and relevant information to enable them to help us make informed decisions on our priorities for the future.

"In order to demonstrate leadership one must have a vision and this vision should be based on facts. Regrettably, inaccurate and negative articles have no place in the future challenges we all face."