A petition has been launched to urge the council to tackle a rise in littering and fly-tipping on the borough’s streets.

Labour’s environment spokesman Cllr Alan Schneiderman drew up the petition to address what he claims is one of the biggest issues that regularly crop up when talking to residents.

Cllr Schneiderman said: “When residents come in surgeries, or when I’m out knocking on doors, it is coming up more and more as an issue.

“It is noticeable in the past few months how many more people are raising that.

“The problem of fly-tipping and dirty streets in Barnet is getting noticeably worse.”

At a meeting of the environment committee in March, councillors agreed to delegate £100,000 to the council’s strategic director of environment to support street cleansing.

A report is due to come back to the committee’s next meeting setting out options on how to spend an extra £400,000 to clean up the borough.

Cllr Schneiderman said: “Despite the extra money they say they are going to put in, it is still a cut considering what they have taken out.

“That is a cut compared to what was taken out this year and in previous years.

“They have got rid of regular street cleaning in residential roads, and so now it is a reactive issue.

“It is town centres, but there are also problems in lots of individual residential roads. They are not regularly swept anymore.”

Cllr Schneiderman said he wanted to see the return of regular street cleaning, collaboration with fast food outlets to help reduce waste and support for community litter-picking groups.

He also suggested bringing in community skips and the roll-out of free, bulky household waste collections to help people dispose of larger items.

Cllr Dean Cohen, the chairman of the environment committee, said: “I announced at the last meeting of the environment committee that half a million pounds has been added to the street cleaning service.

“£100,000 of this has been put to immediate use – in connection with increasing staff numbers.

“As I announced in the meeting, of which Cllr Schneiderman is a member, the specific use of the remaining £400,000 will be decided by the Environment Committee on June 4.”

The petition, which currently has nearly 100 signatures, is available here.