CRITICS have responded to a "put up or shut up" challenge over York Pride.

Liberal Democrat leader Steve Galloway recently blasted Labour snipers who complained some streets were not being cleaned, despite repeated calls to the council.

He told them to produce hard facts to back their claims.

Labour say that ward audits measuring the cleanliness and condition of areas across the city, costing £80,000, did not show the full picture - and they have produced these three photographs to make the point.

Coun Ken King, Labour spokesman for commercial services and Clifton ward member, said today: "The results of these audits bear no relation to my experience of Clifton.

"The report says that in Clifton out of 107 occasions, only on three were the standards either poor or unacceptable, but this is absolute rubbish.

"On a recent walkabout with my fellow ward councillors, we picked up on numerous problems with litter, bin bags, problem gullies, unswept roads - and I know the situation is similar elsewhere."

Coun King said: "We need to be realistic about the standard we are at, so we can set a genuine benchmark for improvement

"These audits paint a very rosy picture, and if the Lib-Dem council is left to measure its own success then people will have little faith in the results.

"We need to bring these audits down to earth by getting local people involved."

Coun King said he had also received complaints from residents of Westfield ward, in Acomb, about the state of streets there.

He said when he visited Westfield ward, he discovered that the streets were "absolutely filthy". Coun King said: "It wasn't rubbish that had just accumulated for the last couple of days - it was old rubbish."

However, Coun Andrew Waller (Lib Dems) rejected criticisms of the ruling group's flagship York Pride project.

He told the Evening Press: "The reason the challenge was thrown down was because we have a system that logs all recorded incidents to the York Pride Hotline so officers can follow them up.

"The sniping coming from Labour was unsubstantiated and unfair for officers."

He said it was in nobody's interests to have litter, graffiti and blocked drains, and called on parties to "pull together".

On the public's role, Coun Waller said information phoned through to the hotline would be reviewed and hotspots and areas of failure identified.

He said: "When Labour was in control they were never able to have this level of information at their fingertips."

Updated: 10:50 Thursday, June 10, 2004