WORK to bring Salisbury's streets up to scratch has begun.

Salisbury City Council recently agreed to take control of grass cutting and street cleaning from Wiltshire Council, under a deal known as the "asset transfer".

The official handover will likely happen after Christmas, so in the meantime the council has set up a new cleaning and weeding regime "to bring the city up to a good standard".

The project is part of a scheme the city council is calling "Love Salisbury", which aims to "continuously improve local facilities, services and cleanliness".

The first two phases are weeding and street cleaning.

The city council is also working with Salisbury BID and Wiltshire Council to replace the city centre litter bins.

City council leader Andrew Roberts said: “We have listened to our residents who had concerns about what the city looked like. We hope this will begin to address those concerns and improve the appearance for both our residents and visitors.”

A pavement sweeper and a pavement cleanser will be out five days a week to begin with, and the council says they have already made "a remarkable difference" to the Market Place and Guildhall Square.

The weeding will run in four phases, starting with the city centre.

The city council will also work with Highways England and Wiltshire Council to tackle the weed problems on major roads into the city.

Wiltshire Council's highway maintenance contract with Balfour Beatty was ended two years early in April after a surge in complaints.

The council hired Ringway to maintain the county's roads, street lights and pavements, clear drains, grit roads and carry out emergency repairs.

But the £75million contract did not include street cleaning and a number of road sweepers were made redundant, leaving just one to cover the whole city centre.

At the time, Wiltshire Council cabinet member for highways Philip Whitehead said: “I believe this deal is the best one possible for the people of Wiltshire in terms of value for money, but most importantly quality.”