How Sunderland Echo readers can help our Clean Streets campaign to tidy up our city

We’ve listened to what many of you said in our recent Big City survey, when 66 per cent of readers said they felt cleanliness of our public places is poor or very poor.

The city council has said that while it shares the concerns of residents, due to budget cuts it has 4,000 fewer employees compared to 2010.

The authority’s public grass and street cleansing service has lost almost £5million funding as a result of those savings as well.

Joy Yates, Echo editorial director, said: “We are grateful to our Echo audience for highlighting, through our survey, the issues they see as priorities in their city.

"We have listened to the feedback and have launched this campaign to focus on a cleaner city.

“This isn’t just the responsibility of our city council – we all have a part to play in having pride in our city and doing all we can to promote a cleaner, smarter Sunderland.”

Here’s how you can help:

* Know a litter/rubbish blackspot? Send us in your pictures - either via our Facebook and Twitter pages or email them to [email protected]

* Businesses, schools, community groups – are you involved in clean-up projects in your communities? Let us know either through the same channels or call the newsdesk on (0191) 5017326.

Survey reveals public anger at litter levels on Sunderland's streets