The Faithful City? It's really more a case of the filthy city

Early morning street sweepers are confronted with everything from blood and vomit to hypodermic needles.

But the main problem for the two-man teams is the fast food remains - including burgers, kebabs and pizzas - that cover the city centre, leaving a lasting film of grease on the floor.

And because aggressive late-night revellers mean sweepers can not safely begin until about 4am, pigeons, seagulls and rats have hours to scavenge before it is removed.

"The sweepers are paid to start at 5am but many of them go out as early as 4am to get the job done before the traffic starts," said Mike Harrison, Worcester City Council head of operational services.

Stained

"They work extremely hard and get very little credit for it but the nature of the rubbish means that though the streets are looking great they are being stained and damaged over time."

According to the authority a change in the public's attitude to littering is the only way to tackle the scourge.

"It shows a total lack of respect for the people who clean the streets as well as to the city itself," said Mr Harrison. "People need to be better educated about looking after their city."

"The problem is certainly not a lack of bins in the city centre, as London, which won the cleanest city award, has virtually none at all. Also, people seem happy to drop their food within yards of the bins in Worcester."

Longer hours

Litter noticeably increases after Friday and Saturday nights, during the summer, and is at its worst - after payday - on the first weekend of the month.

More cleaners are employed for longer hours at these times but the council is appealing for the public to be more thoughtful.

"Street sweepers work extremely hard yet we had one incident where a worker was threatened and had to run away from his machine," Mr Harrison said.

"We don't get too many like that but they can happen, and it makes it very hard to recruit people for the job."