A SUCCESSFUL clean-up operation is to be relaunched next week in a bid to target specific areas of a town.

Operation Clean Sweep, in Hartlepool, which was launched in December 2003 by Mayor Stuart Drummond, saw the council working with other organisations to tackle a range of issues.

The relaunch will have three initiatives, for the north, centre and south of the town.

Each will focus on one of three major themes for a year - environmental or highways improvements and community safety - after which the theme will change.

The first of the clean sweeps starts next week in the south of the town, when Rossmere Park will be targeted. This is to coincide with the Rossmere Park Carnival on Saturday, August 25.

Park benches will be painted, shrub beds and trees will be tidied, hedges will be cut back, bat and bird boxes will be made and there will be increased litter, graffiti and dog fouling patrols.

Councillor Peter Jackson, the cabinet member for neighbourhoods and communities, said: "Operation Clean Sweep has been running very successfully for more than three years, but it has now covered the whole town and so we felt it was time to take a fresh look at it."