DUNDEE HAS been named and shamed as one of the dirtiest places in Scotland in a damning report by the Executive’s health watchdog—but council chiefs say the situation is improving.

Rubbish, weeds and dog fouling all contributed to the city failing to meet the minimum Government standard set in 1999.

Dundee City Council hit back at the research yesterday, arguing that it has put successful measures in place since the figures were collated to improve the situation.

“The introduction of environmental wardens and waste enforcement officers during the last 12 months has had a positive impact and have greatly assisted our work to reduce litter within the city,” said a spokesman.

“The people of Dundee play a very important part in helping to keep the city clean and we would encourage them to continue taking a pride in Dundee and the quality of its environment.”

Officials were able to map out the performance of each local authority using information compiled during environmental health visits to public areas such as streets and parks.

Health Protection Scotland found Glasgow suffered the worst problem, scoring a cleanliness index of just 62 out of a maximum 100—the minimum national standard is 67.

Falkirk was the second poorest, scoring 65 points in total, while Dundee, Edinburgh and East Ayrshire were the others failing to meet the standard with scores of 66.

Moray was the cleanest of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas, according to the research, while Angus (69), Perth and Kinross (71) and Fife (68) all reached the Government target.

The researchers found detritus at 59% of the surveyed sites in Dundee, and weeds at 48%. More than one in ten city sites were blighted by dog mess or graffiti.

The council spokesman said the figures referred to in the report have now been surpassed, and Dundee City Council’s overall cleanliness index stands at an improved 69 for the year 2005/06.

He added, “This reflects the efforts that are continually being made by the city council to help ensure that Dundee is a clean and pleasant place to in which to live, work and visit.”

Health officials have suggested that the poor state of some areas is helping fuel the disproportionate gaps in health around the country.

Environmental campaigners claim, meanwhile, that the figures show Scottish local authorities are not spending enough to tackle the problem.

An Executive spokeswoman responded, “We have made a number of funding streams available to local authorities to tackle environmental issues such as litter, graffiti, vandalism and dog fouling.

“We would expect councils to strive to achieve the best results in these areas.”