Four giant vacuum cleaners are set to be deployed around Greenwich’s town centres in a bid to ramp up street cleaning efforts.

The MaxVac MV2000 machines will roam around high streets in Abbey Wood and Charlton as well as Eltham, Greenwich, and Woolwich town centres.

Greenwich Council has spent more than £86,000 to purchase the ‘most advanced kit it possibly can’ by way of improving its streets.

Councillor Denise Hyland, the council’s leader, said: “These machines will bring a major boost to the clean-up regimes for our town centres and play a key role in our campaign to have the cleanest streets in London.

“We are thrilled that many businesses and residents have joined forces with us and signed up to our community charters to help make the borough cleaner and tidier.

“There is a wealth of civic pride across Royal Greenwich which we want to build upon to ensure our high streets are places everyone can feel truly proud of.”

The machines will support the street sweepers while they perform their shifts.

The electric-powered MaxVac machines apparently can pick up the smallest items of rubbish – such as cigarette butts and glass bottles – and hold more rubbish than bins used by the ordinary street cleaner.

Because of their design, they are also said to not produce dangerous emissions and work silently.