A SENIOR York street cleaner has hit back at a city centre shopkeeper who claimed his street was not properly cleaned.

Paul Willey, Street Scene supervisor for the city centre, responded after shopkeeper Lee Barker, owner of E & P Barker Model Shop in Minster Gates, claimed that sweepers rarely cleaned the busy tourist street.

Mr Barker was told by a senior council officer that a "manual litter pick" was scheduled for his street three times a day, as well as visits from mechanical sweepers.

But he said that the visits from street cleaners have now dropped away, and the street was once again full of rubbish.

But Mr Willey defended his five-strong team of sweepers, saying they picked up litter in the street "at least" three times a day, adding that a mechanical sweeper cleaned the street every morning before 6am.

Mr Willey said: "We do our best.

"If people don't hear us, they assume we haven't been. They can't always hear a manual sweeper, so they assume he isn't there.

"There's five lads sweeping in the city - we can't be in every street all the time, but we'd love to be.

"I would love to have 20 or 30 sweepers. But I have got lads who actually enjoy the job - they actually do care what they do. It's not the most glamorous job in the world, but these lads do it."

He said he believed Stonegate was the busiest thoroughfare in Europe. "It should be an absolute pigsty - but it isn't," he said.

Mr Willey praised the York Business Pride initiative, saying businesses should "muck in together" to keep the city's streets clean.

Responding to Mr Barker's complaint, he said: "He wants exactly what we want - a clean city. We have all got a sense of civic pride."

But Mr Barker said: "If they are coming down here that many times, they aren't doing a very good job - some of the same rubbish is still here.

"Somebody is not doing the job that taxpayers are paying for."

Updated: 09:21 Saturday, March 13, 2004