He has launched the new initiative, called Reality Checks, to ensure the council’s contractors ECT meet their obligations to the authority and the borough’s residents. Each visit will last around two hours and be held around every 10 days between now and Christmas. He will take staff from the council and ECT with him, so if he finds any problems they can be dealt with immediately.

The spot checks will help Cllr Stacey personally ensure his administration’s three main priorities, cleaner streets, safer communities and value for money public services, are all being fulfilled.

Cllr Jason Stacey said: “It is no use sitting in the Town Hall commenting on whether streets are clean or not. The only effective way of judging this is getting out and about yourself and seeing it with your own eyes. This is equally true for politicians as well as senior council officers and managers at ECT.

“I shall be ensuring that all areas of the borough are covered. It is important that each location of the spot check is announced at the last moment so when we turn up we can see the areas as they really are. Where we find standards not up to scratch we will be insisting on immediate action.”

August 17, 2006