Before and after images show the clear positive effects of South Kesteven District Council's Big Clean initiative, which keeps the district clean and tidy.

Working to a schedule that takes in all areas of the district, the roving team is out in all weathers to make a real impact on communities.

Cabinet Member for Commercial and Operations, Cllr Dr Peter Moseley, said the hugely popular project had transformed areas across South Kesteven and was delivering a key priority of maintaining a clean and sustainable environment.

He said: "Our motivation for the Big Clean is to provide and retain an improved local street scene; to deliver a higher street standard; and to support our economy by delivering a higher standard of cleanliness which is appealing to investors, residents and visitors.

"We run to a planned schedule to share the benefits around the whole of South Kesteven but the advantage is flexibility. The team can be called to problem areas highlighted by residents or reassigned at short notice if something needs an immediate fix.

"They are a great team and, as one of the public faces of the council, build relationships with our communities.

"We had a message through from a resident, who saw them working near Bedehouse Bank in Bourne last week, and told us: 'Lovely bunch, polite, funny and friendly, moved away to give a dog walker room, seemed to be enjoying their work and set my day up nicely after a chuckle with them'."

At full strength two teams of five people tour the district's 365 square miles with specialist equipment including pressure washers, a weed ripper, leaf blower, strimmers and a large sweeper vehicle which is shared between the two teams.

They tackle weeds, clear fly-tipping, clean street furniture, clean graffiti, pick litter and clean road signs across the district to help meet SKDC's commitment to a higher street standard.

Residents can highlight problem areas to alert the team via the SKDC website www.southkesteven.gov.uk/bigclean

Grantham, Bourne, Stamford, and the Deepings are on the cleaning rota, as well as dozens of villages throughout the district. The schedule (subject to change) is also at www.southkesteven.gov.uk/bigclean