TWO areas of our street scene in Southfield look terrible - the dirty streets and the huge growth of the trees' basal growth, left to block pavement after pavement over recent months.

In terms of the litter, fly tips, graffiti and leaves, the new Council run organisation (Greener Ealing) appears still to be not performing leaving many streets looking untidy.

On the latter issue, Ealing Council has a contractor who should have done most of the streets across our borough but they are many months behind schedule in Southfield, Chiswick, as well.

Numerous residents have given examples of issues about the lack of tree pruning in a number of roads around Southfield.

I have visited some of the streets this week and can account for the accuracy of their feedback.

From what Liberal Democrat councillors have seen, it does appear that the recent work has been rather patchy and is not being done in a systemic, organised manner.

This means that many streets have still to be done including: Antrobus Road, Blenheim Road, Blandford Rd, Esmond Road, Hawkshead Road, Mansell Road, Montgomery Road, Queen Anne's Gardens, Ramillies Road, Rusthall Avenue, St Albans Avenue, Shirley Road, Somerset Road and Temple Road.

Also on Brookfield Road there is a basal tree root that was removed by the council months ago but they never came back to finish the job but the pavement was just left, not repaved for months, just the wood chip and broken pavement remains which is a nightmare for buggies and the elderly.

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Liberal Democrats say that when Councils pay large amounts of tax payer's money to contractors they need to be sure they will do the job and do it well.

Ealing Council failed with Amey whose job was to collect the waste and recyclables as well as cleaning our streets.

They were managed so poorly it took years before they were removed.

So, with the tree pruning I can see that the company are blaming residents for parking in the streets when the contractors want to prune the trees.

However, notices from the contractors do not appear to have been placed in many areas so the Council need to ensure the contractors do the job rather than blaming residents.

Liberal Democrats have written a strongly worded letter about this and expect to see progress in the coming weeks.

*This article is part of the weekly column provided to Ealing Nub News by the leader of the Ealing Liberal Democrats, Councillor Gary Malcolm.

• The leaders of the other two main Ealing parties (Labour and Conservatives) have also been offered that opportunity, but so far have chosen not to take it.