Sita has been collecting waste from people's homes and cleaning the streets of Brighton and Hove for almost 18 months.

Yet still the streets are filthy and there are hundreds of complaints each week about missed collections.

The moans are not as numerous as they were last summer when Sita reorganised rounds or at bank holiday times when they were delays.

But the figures are still unacceptably high and it's more than high time Sita did something about it.

Everyone accepts getting rid of rubbish in a city full of tourists and with a big bedsitter belt is never going to be easy.

Sita also had to spend a lot of time taking over responsibility for rubbish collection from five different firms with different standards and ways.

But the dirt and rubbish is dragging down the new city. This cannot be allowed to continue for much longer.

Councillors are already penalising Sita for not keeping up to the terms of the contract.

Without improvements, they should tear up it up and start again.