LITTERBUGS are making the streets of Newport the dirtiest of any major city in South Wales, the Argus can reveal.

Cardiff and Swansea have a "significant" lead on Newport in street cleanliness inspections.

People throwing takeaway cartons and other rubbish on the streets ensure that for the past two years Newport has not met its target of 85% of highways being of "a high or acceptable standard of cleanliness".

But in 2001-02, 92.7% of streets in Cardiff made the grade, and Swansea enjoyed a pass rate of 89%.

Stephen Davison, head of public protection and environmental services, said the lag between Newport and its rival cities is still an issue, despite a budget of £1.5m to tackle litter this year.

He said: "We are not performing well against Cardiff or Swansea. The gap is a significant difference."

Angela Williams, pictured, who runs Books, in Upper Dock Street, said: "I can believe this. Stinking bags of rubbish from takeaways have stood outside my shop uncollected for two days."

Swansea city council spends £2.5m a year cleaning up after a population of 223,000.

Cardiff chiefs failed to provide the Argus with its budget for cleaning up after the city's 306,000 residents. Newport, with 137,000 residents, scored 84.4% in the cleanliness test in the past two years.

The inspection involves council officers picking random streets and judging their 'tidiness' against pictures of clean and dirty streets.

Councillor John Marsh, whose Stow Hill ward covers the city centre, said: "I recently had a complaint that steps near a food shop had been used as a toilet.

"Takeaways create a lot of mess and chewing-gum is a menace.

"Commercial Street is cleaned regularly, so it's the people who are dirty."

Malcolm Hall, director of Newport City Centre Partnership, said: "I am surprised. I have gone into Newport centre and thought it was very clean, but have thought the opposite of Cardiff. Let this be a shot in the arm to Newport."

The figures also reflect a problem of fly-tipping in rural areas.

Newport's transport and sustainable scrutiny committee disputed the figures, ordering an investigation into whether or not the comparison is fair. Mr Davison told the committee Cardiff and Swansea may not be applying the tests, which are prone to subjective opinion, as stringently.