A SCHEME to clean up areas of Hartlepool will come full circle next week.

Hartlepool Borough Council's Operation Clean Sweep is targeting the town's Burbank estate - where the programme. Mayor Stuart Drummond launched the initiative there in December 2003, and since then it has covered all parts of the town.

It involves the council working with a range of partner organisations to concentrate resources in a particular area, usually for about a week, to tackle a range of issues.

Now, in a change of format, there are three separate operations, one each for the north, centre and south of the town. Each focuses on one of three themes for a year - environmental and highways improvements and community safety - after which the theme will change.

The theme over the next 12 months for the centre of the town, which includes Burbank, is highways improvements.

A range of works will be carried out during the course of the week, from Monday to Friday.

Mayor Drummond said: "Next week's Operation Clean Sweep is particularly symbolic, given that this is where the initiative was launched.

"It was a ground-breaking idea, and its success is reflected in the fact that it is still going strong, albeit in a slightly different form, and that many other local authorities have followed our lead and adopted similar initiatives."