ABERAERON missed legendary street cleaner Maurice Horton over the summer months, town councillors have been told.

Town mayor Cllr Elizabeth Evans said Maurice – who has been honoured for his long service over the years – now worked just three days a week and had chosen to take his annual leave over the summer.

“You could see the difference – Aberaeron really missed Maurice,” she told colleagues.

“He obviously thoroughly deserves his summer break, but now he’s down to three days it’s noticeable!”

Cllr Mair Harrison said while dog fouling was a particular problem in Market Street, some businesses did not clean up outside their own premises.

“It’s not up to Maurice to clean under tables and chairs,” she said.

“I don’t want to tar everyone with the same brush because some traders are very particular – however people tend to throw cigarette butts everywhere and the situation is not fair on those who do clean up.”

Cllr Evans admitted it was a delicate situation as business owners paid ‘really high’ business rates.

“Unfortunately, I think we are going to have to ask them to brush the pavements outside their own businesses at the start of the day,” she added.

Cllr Phill Davies did not think the council should have to spread such a message.

“If they don’t clean up outside then, quite frankly, it detracts from their businesses,” he said.

Cllr Evans said the town council would examine its budget to see if it could hire the large street-cleaning machine based in Aberystwyth for a day.

“However, asking the businesses to do their bit would certainly improve the town,” she added.

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