BUSINESS leaders and councillors were given a two hour tour of city to see the work being carried out by the Salisbury Business Improvement District's (BID) new cleaning service, which launched in May.

The BID has been working with Salisbury City Council to provide a responsive cleaning service with its new van — dubbed 'Gordon'.

The team will clean rubbish when its reported by businesses but it also has a rolling plan of cleaning work which is carried out on a day to day basis.

Cleaners also report issues such as benches needing repainting or broken street furniture back to the BID offices.

Ian Newman, BID director, said he had organised the tour to show first hand the problem areas of the city. He emphasised to the group that the decline in standards over the past few years is largely down to huge and restricted budget cuts to councils which have resulted in severely curtailed services.

"It has broken my heart over the last few years to see the lack of maintenance, the decline in street cleaning standards and the weed ingression in the city," he said.

"As a BID we fully understand why services have had to be reduced and our objective is just to work with the authorities, not to duplicate but to help and support the issues. We are really appreciative of the goodwill and relationships that we have been able to establish with the councils in work with us, particularly when it comes to co-operation, support and advice in establishing this new service."

Following the the mini-bus trip, Steve Godwin, Business Manager for BID said that he was really pleased with the outcome of the exercise.

"Businesses have positively responded by contacting BID to express their appreciation for the service, and the reputation has already spread rapidly through word of mouth," he said.

"I feel that declining standards has contributed to a sense of helplessness and that in some cases, businesses have become dejected at the state of the city. Hopefully we can show through action, signs of optimism and help to bring back that pride in our beautiful city."