AS I wander through my beloved city, I cannot help but be appalled by the state of the streets.

Cigarette butts, little splodges of hard black mess that was once chewing gum, bottles, food cartoons, stains, graffiti and basically grime everywhere.

This is not a nice way to present our lovely city to the thousands of tourists who flock here every single year, bringing in God knows how many millions of pounds.

When will we get people who can return our streets to being as clean as I’m sure they used be? This issue has been brought up time and time again, and yet nothing happens.

I’m sure if the council stopped wasting money on nonsense and got their priorities right, that being to present a nice imagine of this wonderful city full of priceless history, they could employ more cleaners to keep on top of the round-the-clock business of keeping the streets clean.

Don’t get me wrong, it must be hard to keep on top of it, what with the thousands of people walking the streets every day. But the streets of cities in Spain are spotless, and they have many people walking around their cities as well, so it is inexcusable, and there is vast room for improvement.

Michael A Ward, Clifton Without, York.