PLACES with the dirtiest streets in the South-East have been named and shamed in a new league table.

Arun topped a chart drawn up to compare the amounts of litter and debris on public land and highways across the country.

According to the report by the Audit Commission, 50 per cent of Arun's streets had scattered items of waste during spot checks in 2004/5, making it the worst in the South-East and the second worst in the country.

The next worst offender in Sussex was Crawley, where 30 per cent of streets were dirty. The figure for Lewes was 27 per cent and for Brighton 23.8 per cent.

The cleanest places in Sussex were Rother, where only 0.5 per cent of the relevant areas were dirty, and Chichester, were the figure was four per cent. Also scoring high were Adur, where only 6.1 per cent of streets were scattered with litter, and Worthing, where seven per cent were dirty.

The figures were ranked by public sector union GMB from data supplied by the local authorities to the Audit Commission.

Arun District Council cast doubt on the accuracy of the figures. A spokesman said the figures also related to a period when it had just begun a new waste contract after the previous one was dissolved.

Colin Rogers, services director, said the methods of recording rubbish would be investigated. He said: "I am absolutely positive that the results don't give a true picture. I have no doubt that Arun is one of the cleaner authorities."

He said the town centres and beaches were cleaned several times a day and each year for the last ten years Littlehampton and Bognor have won clean beach awards.

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokeswoman said: "Our street cleaning service has improved since 2004/5 as the customer satisfaction survey at the end of last year shows. We have done much to improve cleanliness including containing refuse with wheelie or communal bins and have introduced a dedicated graffiti team."

Alan Dodge, contract services officer for Rother District Council, said: "We are very satisfied. We are generally a clean area. We still have to work hard in conjunction with our contractor. There is a high expectation by residents and tourists."

Bob Riley, contracts manager for Chichester District Council, said: "We are delighted with the figures in the GMB report which show we are the local authority with the fifth cleanest streets in the country. We would like to congratulate our street cleaning teams and also say a big thank you to all our residents for helping us achieve this goal."