SALISBURY City Council's leader called for more "civic pride" as he outlined plans to clean up the city centre.

Councillor Matthew Dean said the council has "got to get to the point where people our proud to live in Salisbury" at a meeting addressing members of Salisbury's Business Improvement District on Thursday (September 21).

Cllr Dean said since the asset transfer from Wiltshire Council in May, the city council had taken on the responsibility for services including street cleaning (not roads) and maintaining open parks and spaces.

He said the service the city council "inherited" is "not acceptable for a city like Salisbury", adding: "We are committed to improving it and improving it quickly. "

Cllr Dean said the council had already made short-term investments including extra cleaning kit such as pavement sweepers, and doubling the number of hours spent on street sweeping in the city centre, and said the council "have recognised that just having a few barrow men walking around town isn't going to solve the problem".

He told business owners that before the asset transfer there had been "no maintenance of street furniture for 12 years" and said the city council and BID have bought 100 new litter bins, and refurbished the old ones to be placed in Salisbury's suburbs.

The council will be “closely managing the contracts inherited from Wiltshire Council to make sure what we are paying for is what we are getting,” Cllr Dean said.

He said the contract inherited had “minimal levels of Sunday work” but “the city has nine bells of hell bashed out of it on a Saturday night” and, on a Sunday, “the city isn’t dressed as we would like.”

Wiltshire Council is still responsible for road sweeping, but Cllr Dean said: "Nonetheless, we are doing things in certain parts of the city that we realise we have to do, because Wiltshire council has got no money."

“This is all about the approaches to our city," he said. "It’s about feeling that we have arrived in Salisbury and it’s a nice place.”

They have also started weed spraying and increasing the number of flower displays in the city. “We want the city to look beautiful.”

Next year they are looking to increase the budget for “making the city look attractive” by 30 per cent.

But he said the city council "can't do it all" and had “even considered presenting every business in the city with a broom and a dustpan and brush".

"Somehow we need to affect some behavioural change," Cllr Dean said. "We need the help of the business community and residents that we represent.

“We need to get out into the community and say ‘if you want a beautiful city you have to help us get it to this level'.”

He also said the car parks, managed by Wiltshire Council, are “a disgrace” and he was talking to them about it.