RESIDENTIAL streets in Swindon are going unswept because the task of keeping them clean is falling between the borough and parish councils.

And concern about the state of the roads has been raised by councillors and people living in the areas.

Claire Crilley is a Labour member of both the borough council and Stratton St Margaret parish Council.

“It needs sorting out. There are a lot of leaves falling and piling up, and they can clog the gutter and the drains and make flooding worse, and there’s quite often a lot of debris along the side of a lot of streets. If it’s a street where cars are parked along the side on a daily basis it could mean that it almost never gets swept.”

She said she had been contacted by a householder in Green Road who had struggled to get the gutters in the street swept.

“I think it was done in the end after he’d made a number of calls.”

She contacted Swindon Borough Council’s Street Smart team herself and was told that residential streets aren’t its responsibility any more. “I raised it as a member and had a response that the borough council does the main roads, it doesn’t do the residential roads.

“I was told that it was passed to the parish councils when they were all set up a few years ago.”

But as a member of a parish council, Coun Crilley said she didn’t think many of them were either equipped or funded to sweep streets regularly.

“I contacted the officer who deals with streets in our parish council and he said that we didn’t have the specialist equipment for it, and there isn’t the budget for it.

“I asked a few other parishes, such as Haydon Wick and they said they didn’t do it either.”

A borough council spokesman said: “The borough council sweeps the main A and B roads and bus routes throughout Swindon and aims to sweep other residential streets every two years as part of its ongoing road maintenance schedule.

“On top of that, four parish councils - namely North Central, South Central, West Swindon and St Andrews – have contracted the borough council to sweep cycle paths, footpaths and the local shopping centres within their respective areas. The remaining areas of the borough are the responsibility of individual parish councils.”

Coun Crilley said: “This seems to be something that has fallen in the cracks between the borough and most of the parish councils in Swindon. I think if they were properly equipped and funded, the parishes would be happy to do it, but they aren’t at the minute."