Vale of Clwyd MS, Gareth Davies, today challenged the Welsh Government in the Senedd over what he says is a visible and worsening decline in the cleanliness of Wales’s urban areas, arguing that official claims about environmental performance do not match the reality faced by residents and visitors.
During the Business Statement and Announcement, Mr Davies called for a statement from the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs on urban cleanliness and questioned how effectively the Welsh Government is working with local authorities to tackle litter and grime in Welsh towns and cities.
He pointed to findings from Keep Wales Tidy’s 2025 report which outlined the worst results for street cleanliness since the charity began 17 years ago, including a 286 per cent increase in the number of streets classed as the dirtiest. He mentioned that he had personally seen standards deteriorate both in Denbighshire and during his regular visits to Cardiff since his time as a Senedd member.
The emergence of a social media account called “Dirty Wales” was referred to, which posts images of unclean streets in an attempt to “shame authorities into action. Mr Davies warned that the growing visibility of litter, fly-tipping, and grime, risks damaging Wales’s reputation and undermining pride in local communities such as Rhyl, which he identified as a town in which residents have noticed an uptick in fly tipping and litter.
Commenting following the exchange, Gareth Davies MS said:
“The Welsh Government pats themselves on the back for their recycling rates, but the situation with regard to urban cleanliness in Wales is shameful, and it reflects badly on us all when the condition of our streets has become a source of national embarrassment.”“It’s undermining people’s pride in their own communities, to the point where residents are now resorting to publicly shaming authorities into action because they they see problems with litter, grime, and fly-tipping getting worse.
“The Welsh Government needs to get serious about how filthy our streets are, and work with local authorities to lead a nationwide crackdown to clean up our streets and restore pride in our towns and cities.”