A woman sick of her town being nicknamed ‘Dirtford’ is calling on people to take some responsibility for their neighbourhood, starting with their own street.

Dartford is in line for a £4million boost from the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP), a body set up to help economic growth.

If confirmed, this autumn it will be added to £3million Dartford council already has for a £7million package of improvements including a new market square, a town centre furniture facelift and changes to the transport layout.

But teacher Rachel Black fears the money will quickly disappear and what is left needs to be a lasting legacy.

The 34-year-old grew up in Dartford and Stone and has lived in Mount Pleasant Road, Dartford, for seven years.

She said: “It’s just got worse. I’ve watched Dartford get more unkempt and scruffy each year.

“It’s all very well spending lots of money, but the basics need to be right. Nobody wants to go into a dirty town.

“It sounds like a lot but £7million will disappear quickly, and a quick fix like the bandstand which the council seems to be living off the glory from is not something people care about on a day to day basis.

“The market is a really good idea, assuming the streets will be cleaned up.”

Miss Black, who works in Greenwich, said it was not all up to the council though, and efforts should start at home.

“I’m so sick of people calling what is a historic market town, ‘Dirtford’.

“We didn’t inherit this world from our ancestors, we’re borrowing it from our children and they deserve for it to be looked after. I know if I have children I’d want them to be able to be proud of this area.

“But it’s becoming a dirty, unkempt, unloved town. I know [council leader] Jeremy Kite will argue differently, but I speak to people at work who know of Dartford and wouldn’t dream of ever wanting to visit our town.

“They laugh when they see signs for the ‘Garden of England’ at Dartford because it looks so dirty.

“Central Park is lovely, but it’s the only bit that is. We’ve got some fantastic Tudor history here but none of it is promoted.”

She spent five hours of her day recently cleaning up her street. Picking up all the litter and pushing back fridge freezers, mattresses and car seats which had been dumped on the pavement, blocking people’s way – in some cases for months on end.

A few neighbours saw her cleaning up outside their houses and asked if she was from the council.

“I told them I wasn’t, just that I couldn’t bear the sight of all the rubbish in our street any more. I hoped it would prompt people to get rid of their own, but it didn’t.

“I understand not everyone has big cars to take things to the tip, but the council will come and collect them for you.

“I don’t see why the council can’t go to somebody’s house and send them a warning that they have so long to move these items, or they will face a fine.

“They have similar arrangements all over the world, from Germany to Boston.”

“The council has a duty to tackle residents when they are not doing the right thing.

“Leaders need to lead and have high expectations. If we lower our standards that’s what we’re going to get, especially with so many new developments being built now.”

Council chief: 'We're launching litter crackdown'

Council leader Jeremy Kite (Con) met with Miss Black earlier this month to listen to her concerns and while he conceded the council must take some responsibility, he added that it was difficult to change the views of people who “just don’t give a damn”.

Cllr Kite said: “It was a very useful meeting and she is one of many community-minded people I meet who not only take an interest in their neighbourhood but are willing to do something about it.

“The number of good people in our town vastly outweighs the very small number who seem not to care about the place they live in and it’s time to be clearer about what is not acceptable.

“The council isn’t above criticism and if there are changes we need to make then we’ll make them but it’s important to remember that litter and roadside junk isn’t a natural phenomenon. It is discarded by people who don’t give a damn about the impact of what they do.”

This year the council launched a crackdown on the plague of litter and cigarette butts, and hundreds of fines have been issued.

Cllr Kite added: “It’s sad that it takes a financial penalty to make people do what they should do without a second thought but we have no regrets about the initiative.

“It’s simply unfair for some people to get away with throwing litter when the vast majority of decent people don’t, but we can’t just focus on the town centre and the problem is bigger than litter or fag butts.

“It’s time to turn the screw on those who cause problems anywhere and think it’s okay to leave fridges, mattresses or household junk where it can annoy good people and destroy the look of a street, public space or verges.

“we need to speak for the majority and stand up for them.”

The leader has now asked councillors and officers to bring together all the council’s current policies to ensure they are under one legislative umbrella, and work with partners like KCC, Highways England and the rail companies to follow suit on a littering and fly-tipping crack down.

The council will also be dishing out advice to people on what is not acceptable, and give support to local councillors on the frontline in their communities.

Cllr Kite continued: “And yes, we will start in our own backyard. We deliver a weekly bin collection service that is disappearing all over the country and our terrific waste teams work incredibly hard to provide a good service.

“I get a very small number of complaints compared to the tens of thousands of bins they collect each week but if we do something wrong or make a mess then we need to put that right.”