A YEAR-LONG council campaign to clean up the borough of Maidstone has started in determined fashion to safeguard an area of outstanding natural beauty from flytippers.

This week Maidstone council launched its clean-up campaign at Pilgrims Way, Boxley, which is a notorious black spot for dumped rubbish and abandoned cars.

The council expects to remove 30 lorry loads of rubbish from the historic Pilgrims Way, which is part of the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It has teamed up with Kent County Council, English Nature, Rail Link, Boxley Parish Council and other organisations to landscape and replant the area after the clean-up.

Cllr Roger Berriman (Lab), the council's Cabinet member for health and environment, said: "The scar on the landscape in Pilgrims Way caused by the filth traders are dumping up there is awesome.

"Our mission is to clean up areas like this that have been desecrated throughout the borough and stop it from happening again."

The council is hoping to permanently close Pilgrims Way off Boxley Hill to protect the land. It intends to seek similar road closure orders in other areas of the borough that have problems with flytipping and dumped cars. The council's pledge to improve the environment includes improvements to street cleansing as well and taking a hard line on graffiti.

It has employed another rubbish removal hit squad to tackle flytipping, committed extra resources to doorstep recycling, targeted graffiti removal, will repair street furniture and has a machine to remove chewing gum form the streets.

Cllr Berriman added: "This is just the start of a year-long drive to clean-up the borough."