Who’s to blame for the dirt – Labour or the Lib Dems ?

Local councils in Wales are running a competition on which possesses the dirtiest road signs. They’ll be blaming the Assembly for not giving them enough money this year so they can clean them.

If it’s not the Assembly, it will be the general economic situation.

The worst council in Wales is surely the largest one – Cardiff, and the neighbouring Rhondda Cynon Taf and Vale of Glamorgan must be running the city a close second.

In fact, it’s neither of the reasons I’ve just given. It’s more likely that some councils just don’t care.

But I’m glad to be able to report that another neighbour is among the best. Caerffili suffered, indeed, for a couple of years when Labour was in control and the cleaning suffered from a budget cut.

Fortunately, Plaid had been in control previously and had run a strict cleaning regime. So there was not that much chance for Labour’s years to allow the signs to get that dirty.

Plaid are now in control again. And orders have gone out from the council offices to get out the cleaning equipment once more.

I spoke to one of Plaid’s councillors, who told me that a gang was already at work. He added, “Mind you, I don’t know where. I haven’t seen any evidence yet.”

Some might say this is scarcely an issue at the top of any council’s agenda. But it shows pride in an area. Caerffili’s road signs are clean; so are their council estates.

RCT’s signs can be bad. So are their council estates. But it’s not purely political. Merthyr does well on both accounts. Could it be something to do with having one of the tidiest-looking AMs down Cardiff Bay – Huw Lewis ?

Cardiff’s signs are a laughing stock. They are NEVER cleaned. Eventually, they get so bad they have to be replaced. Which is cheaper – cleaning, or buying anew and then erecting ?

You could blame the Lib Dems, who run the city now. But Cardiff’s roads have always been bad; when Alun Michael, Labour MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, was chairman of transport, he often complained about the damage that poor city road surfaces was causing to his buses.

One sometimes fears that some Labour administrations skimp on cleanliness because that is a “middle class preoccupation”. Unfortunately, Cardiff seems to possess a culture of couldn’t care less. Or the surveyor hasn’t had the oomph to demand a bigger budget.