BLAENAU Gwent was revealed as having the dirtiest streets in Wales for the third year running, according to figures published yesterday.

In “How Clean Are Our Streets” by Keep Wales Tidy, Blaenau Gwent was found to have the lowest rating of cleanliness in 2009-10.

Newport however had the second lowest rating, compared to Monmouthshire shared the highest rating with Conwy.

Blaenau Gwent also had the highest percentage of smoking-related litter while Torfaen had the highest percentage of confectionery litter and fast food litter.

Surveys were carried out in each local authority between April 2009 and March 2010 and covered eight percent of randomly selected streets which were used by Keep Wales Tidy to calculate the cleanliness index.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Pride is the key

WHAT an unenviable title Blaenau Gwent has for third year running as it tops a list of having the dirtiest streets.

Keep Wales Tidy gave the area the lowest rating out of all authorities in Wales after examining streets for litter.

Not everybody litters. Only those with no pride in their community do it.

But they ruin it for everyone else and, sadly the whole of Blaenau Gwent is now tarred with the same brush.

Littering is also an act in which the perpetrators need to be caught red-handed and sadly that cannot always happen.

If someone could work out a way of instilling community pride in these people then our streets would be cleaner.