Safety concerns have been raised over Braintree Council's litter picking practices on the A12 and A120.

And action may be taken as part of a tidy-up campaign to address falling standards in street cleaning.

The authority has come under fire from Essex Police and the Highways Agency to tighten safety measures and step up collections.

The council currently uses slow moving street cleaning vehicles along with workmen collecting litter.

But head of environmental services Peter Tattersley wants more frequent collections using safer specialist vehicles and methods.

He also hopes to introduce street washing in High Street areas for the first time in places such as the arches in Braintree town centre.

He said: "We need to change the system to make it safer for workmen and road users. We are looking at introducing rolling road blocks.

"The police are saying it's not good enough to have a vehicle on the A12 without giving prior warning to traffic. These things run quite slowly and motorists do have difficulty sometimes in avoiding them.

"We also want to introduce street washing to remove a lot of the stains that we have in our town centres."

Mr Tattersley said more money was also needed to address other problem areas such as:

A 500 per cent increase in fly tipping because of new charges for special collections and the introduction of height restrictions at refuse tips

Litter on housing estates

Mess being left behind by increasing numbers of travellers to the district.

The council's environmental protection team is now seeking a £20,000 cash boost so steps can be taken towards providing a solution.

Mr Tattersley said the reasons for a decline from "very high to high" standards were lack of money, increased public demand and resources being spread thinly over a wide area.

And he added the growth of the district had not been matched by more resources.

The request for an additional £20,000 will be considered at Braintree Council's environment committee on Wednesday.

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