REGULAR readers of this column will know I have a pathological hatred of litter and grot spots in the Valley.

My hatred intensifies even more for the morons who create it. On Sunday, after collecting about 3lbs of Sunday paper from my local newsagents, I drove onto St Mary’s Way to find one lane coned off and workers in yellow ‘high vis’ jackets looking a bit like bees all over the central reservation cleaning it up.

Fair play to the council, I thought, for really getting it together! But it wasn’t the council doing the work; it was the fantastic Civic Pride organisation – a group of volunteers who I have mentioned before.

Were it not for Civic Pride, Rawtenstall would look a lot worse than it does now. They do truly fantastic work.

But should Civic Pride have to be doing such heavyweight work in the first place? Surely that’s why we all pay our council tax.

It baffles me that a lot of these grot spots seem to be invisible to both the council and councillors at a local level, when having the place look nice and clean should be a high priority.

I notice that several candidates have spouted in their electoral literature that keeping the streets clean and tidy is a priority for them.

Well, rest assured I intend to keep them to these pledges. I’m still looking for evidence of Rossendale in Bloom; apart from the work done by, you guessed it, Civic Pride. If you type “Rossendale in Bloom” into the council’s website, no references at all pops up. However, “Rossendale Sustainability” and “Rossendale Strategy” do and, for me, that speaks volumes.

I’ve been watching the fascinating series about Lagos in Nigeria, a place where they have a monthly sanitation day. Everyone has a legal responsibility to clean up around their homes and business premises, and it is strictly enforced.

In Clive’s world that would be one of the first laws I would pass. Plus, I would operate a zero tolerance policy on anti-social stuff like this, so there really would be no poncing about on this issue.

Finally, by noon tomorrow, the vast majority of the candidates in the General and Local Elections will be very disappointed and I genuinely commiserate with them, as well as congratulating them for having the bottle to stand for election in the first place.

The clear point that has come out of this election for me is the need for radical electoral reform; I’m now convinced that the first past the post system is outdated and unfair, but nor can I fully embrace the Proportional Representation system. My preferred option is the second vote system – but please don’t ask me to explain it!

* Follow my tweets at twitter@clivesworld