A MUCH-needed clean up will be given to the A14 after weeks of increasing rubbish levels being ignored.A dispute over whose responsibility it is to clear litter has been resolved and street cleaning workers are taking to the carriageway from as early as Sunday.

A MUCH-needed clean up will be given to the A14 after weeks of increasing rubbish levels being ignored.

A dispute over whose responsibility it is to clear litter has been resolved and street cleaning workers are taking to the carriageway from as early as Sunday.

But although the move has sparked a peaceful solution to the row it may only be temporary.

The agreement between Mid Suffolk district council and the Highways Agency's contracting firm is for only 12 months.

The Evening Star first revealed cleaning of the stretch of road in mid Suffolk had been halted in June.

The council said it could not afford to carry on following new health and safety regulations and called for the Highways Agency to pay for work because a lot of national traffic uses the road to reach Felixstowe.

Councillor Roger Saunders, leader of the council, said: "It was the best outcome we could have hoped for and we are looking forward to a vast improvement.

"It was horrible that the rubbish was allowed to build up and we hope the people of mid Suffolk notice the difference.

"We were not happy when we had to abandon the cleaning as we knew it wasn't the best thing for the town but it was all we could do."

After the first 12 months the council will have to find £45,000 a year to continue the contract.

Mr Saunders said the council would try not to increase council tax but he fears services elsewhere will suffer as a result.

Other district councils have entered into similar agreements with the firm, although mid Suffolk holds by far the largest section of the A14.

Babergh and St Edmundsbury councils have welcomed the move although they did not stop providing the services while discussions were underway.

Suffolk Coastal said it is continuing to work as before but will shortly be contracting the service out.

The contractors currently do the job on the A12 in Essex and MP David Ruffley had been calling for a similar scheme.

He said: "You only have to compare the cleanliness of the A12 in Essex to the A14 to see the model works.

"Drivers daily have to drive past litter strewn stretched of the road and I want us to be proud of the gateway to Suffolk and not to make excuses for its untidy state."

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