THE MAYOR of Wantage has vowed to clean the town up.

Steve Trinder pledged 'new brooms' to tackle long-running litter problems especially in the market place.

Shops along the south side which have no back entrance, such as Costa coffee, are forced to leave bin bags on the pavement overnight on Monday and through Tuesday.

On Monday night the town council set an item on its agenda about 'the Costa litter problem'.

While there is still no obvious solution to the unsightly bin bags other than asking shops to stack them as neatly as possible, the council agreed a slew of initiatives to clean up the town centre including new bins, a 'deep clean' of the Bear Hotel forecourt next to Costa and even a new contract for hanging basket displays.

Mr Trinder said: "Ever since Costa has been there we've struggled to deal with their rubbish because, unfortunately, they produce quite a lot and every Monday it gets stuck in their doorway ready for collection sometime on Tuesday.

"It's not just Costa it's all the shops on that side that don't have anywhere to put their rubbish."

Town councillor Jenny Hannaby agreed, adding: "It's not just Costa, it's all along the street and it's not a very nice sight.

"It's a problem we're trying to resolve: we're trying to make the town pleasant to come to but the waste always seems to be there."

But following Monday night's meeting, Mr Trinder said he was optimistic about the future.

He said: "The good news is that Costa have taken onboard our feedback and have done a good job keeping it neat.

"We are also having new bins installed in the town centre – we've already put one at the bus stop at the bottom of Harcourt Way and we're having one installed in front of Rowes [newsmarket on Wallingford Street]."

In addition to that the council has agreed a 'deep clean' of the Bear Hotel forecourt and is hoping to organise a 'town-wide' spring clean in the next few weeks.

Councillors also agreed on Monday night to spruce up damaged benches and bins in the memorial garden at Wantage Cemetery on Chain Hill.

Mr Trinder said: "One of my raison d'etre as mayor was to make Wantage look as nice as possible and this is all part of that."

A Costa spokesman said: "Our store on Wantage High Street has limited space for waste storage, the team have been liaising with the local authority to improve how the rubbish is stored whilst awaiting collection and have implemented the recommendations."