A FORMER councillor has called on Lampeter Town Council to use its vast reserves to employ a full-time street cleaner to “dramatically improve the appearance of the town”.

In its budget set earlier this year, Lampeter Town Council set aside £4,000 to deploy a county council staff member on an overtime basis to clean the streets in town when there are events going on.

But former town councillor Dinah Mulholland has called on the council to go further and use some of its £103,677 reserves in the bank to employ a local person full-time to keep the streets of Lampeter clean and tidy.

A street cleaner is employed in Tregaron by the council there.

Lampeter town councillors heard at a meeting last year that the county council resources for street cleaning are “very limited”.

Dinah Mulholland told the Cambrian News: “There is no doubt that our streets in Lampeter need more regular cleaning, but if Ceredigion Street Cleaning Services don’t have the budget for it we have to be pragmatic and find other solutions.

“There is a solution available however, and it was offered to Lampeter Town Council that they could create a job and employ someone locally to do street cleaning as Tregaron Town Council have done.

“Lampeter Town Council have huge reserves of over £100,000 in the bank. They have been criticised several years in a row by the External Auditor for this.

“But despite that, they have decided not to employ someone local and instead are paying overtime rates to Ceredigion Council to get the streets cleaned on ‘special occasions’ only.

“I think that this decision by Lampeter Town Councillors is a matter of public concern.

“That job could have supported an individual or family, and supported the local economy, and dramatically improved the appearance of the town.

“And the town council could have brought down their reserves in a constructive and supportive way for the community and businesses during this very challenging economic time.”

Lampeter Town Council’s clerk said that members were due to discuss the issue at a meeting last Thursday.