The latest government figures revealed that councils in the county spent £12.7 million on street cleaning in 2018/19.
The amount spent on street cleaning in the last year was up from £12.3 million in 2017/18.
Nottingham City Council was the local authority in England that spent the most on street cleaning – a total of £4.4m last year.
And the problem was worst in district councils in Ashfield, where the council spent £3m ridding their roads and pavements of rubbish – which works out at £23.52 per person.
It compares to the lowest amount in the county at £5.31 per head spent in Newark and Sherwood, which came to £600,000 in total on tidying the streets.
Across Nottinghamshire, councils spent £15.7m on bins and more than the £12.7 million on street cleaning:
Nottingham City Council
For 2018/19, the city council spent £4,429,000 on street cleaning – which works out as £13.38 per head.
This figure includes costs for staff, supervision, fleet, fuel, equipment, overheads, and all street cleansing and grounds maintenance activity.
Residents in the city said it was “disappointing” to hear the council have to spend millions on keeping the city clean – money that could be better spent elsewhere on council housing as an example.
Nottingham City Council’s deputy leader, councillor Sally Longford added: “It’s a shame to have to spend this amount of money cleaning up after fly-tippers when funding is so tight and there is a free bulky waste collection available.
“We are constantly trying to raise awareness of the free bulky waste collection service, especially in areas where fly-tipping of household waste is more prevalent, as well as carrying out enforcement against fly-tippers.
“While these costs are high, they have been reduced in real terms over the last five years, indicating that the message about our free bulky waste collection is getting through – with around 1,000 collections a week and over 48,000 items collected a year.”
Ashfield District Council
Ashfield District Council spent more money on cleaning up litter and fly tipping than it did on bin collections.
The council spent more than twice as much on street cleaning in 2018/19 as they did on waste collection – £1.3m.
Councillor Helen Ann-Smith, deputy leader of the council and portfolio holder for Streets, Parks and Town Centres said: “We are proud to be spending this money to ensure that Ashfield is a clean district, where littering, dog fouling and fly tipping are challenged.
“We are committed to keeping our district clean and tidy. We have joined forces with other authorities in Nottinghamshire to create the Cleaner Nottinghamshire Group.
“This partnership, which allows us to share information on fly-tipping, along with our past and current projects, demonstrate our dedication to ensuring that Ashfield has a clean environment.”
Broxtowe Borough Council
The borough council spent £674,000 last year on cleaning its streets – a total of £5.95 per person.
Councillor Helen Skinner, chairwoman of the environment and climate change committee, said: “We’re incredibly proud of our ‘Street Cleansing Team’ who empty 1,200 litter bins each week and collect 1,500 tonnes of litter every year.
“The team is made up of four area based teams across our town centres, which enables them to develop local knowledge of their patch and use this to make best use of our resources.
“They have a real sense of responsibility and pride in their areas which has helped us achieved a cost effective service and a cleanliness level of 96 percent in 2018/19.”
Gedling Borough Council
Gedling Borough Council spent £790,000 on street cleaning last year – a total of £6.71 per head.
Leader of Gedling Borough Council, councillor John Clarke said: “For our residents the appearance and cleanliness of the areas where they live is of the upmost important.
“Our annual budget for street cleansing ensures that over 578 kilometres or roads are swept, 800 litter bins are emptied on a daily basis, 1,300 kilos of litter is collected and that our town centres and roads outside schools are maintained and kept clean.
“This year’s budget includes further investment in frontline services, including the introduction of a new ‘Rapid Response Cleaning Team’, to further strengthen efforts to deal with litter, dog fouling and fly tipping.”
Rushcliffe Borough Council
The borough council spent £809,000 on keeping its streets tidy last year – which works out as £6.88 per head.
Executive manager for neighbourhoods, Dave Banks, said: “Clean roads are important to us to help make Rushcliffe a great place and we continually look at ways to smarten our streets and listen to residents’ feedback on where we can further improve our services.
Mansfield District Council
The district council spent £1.56m on street cleaning last year – a total of £14.40 per person.
Councillor Amanda Fisher, portfolio for safer communities and wellbeing, said: “We work hard to maintain Mansfield so that it is a clean and welcoming district. We want people to be proud of their community and we will always take action where we can against those who fly-tip in our district.”
A council spokesman added fly-tipping figures in Mansfield were the lowest in the first three months of this year compared to any three-month period in the last two to three years.
