A new squad has been created to clean the filth off Wandsworth streets and tackle potholes.

Wandsworth Times:

The council has been keen to emphasise the work is does to clean the streets following our front page story about the litter problem in Tooting in October last year.

It has now announced that its "shake-up" of backroom staff, merging litter teams with highway inspectors, means it now has a bigger team dedicated cleaning and tidying roads.

The group will focus on everything from litter and fly-tipping to broken pavements and potholes.

The council has pursued a policy of merging departments and jobs to cut its spending by millions. By combining the litter and highway teams the council will save £600,000 in the next financial year.

Environment spokesman Councillor Jonathan Cook said: "We believe that bringing these two teams together under a single management structure will deliver really tangible benefits for local people.

"As well as saving money in back office costs, it means that there is a larger team of people that can be used to address specific areas of public concern, whether that is littering and fly-tipping, second-hand car dealers clogging up residents’ parking spaces or builders storing bricks and bags of cement on the carriageway or using skips without permission."

A council statement said 96 per cent of the borough’s streets were meeting national standards for cleanliness and Government statistics show that Wandsworth has the cleanest streets in inner London. It also highlighted data showing Wandsworth has the second lowest level of fly-tipping in London.

Wandsworth Times:

However, many who live in the borough’s untidy streets might beg to differ. Recently residents called for wheelie bins in a bid to tackle the problem in Tooting.

Sadiq Khan, Tooting's MP, said he was pleased the council was taking action and added: "Tooting has been let down by Wandsworth Council for too long. When I raised these problems they tried to ignore us and said it wasn't a problem. Let's hope this announcement makes a real difference."

To report a fly-tip email wasteservices@wandsworth.gov.uk or a street defect email onstreetservices@wandsworth.gov.uk.