RICHMOND has resigned its chairmanship of the GLA campaign to keep London tidy in protest at claims by the Mayor of London that this is one of the dirtiest boroughs in London.

As we reported last week, figures in the Mayor of London's newspaper, The Londoner, suggested that Richmond is the joint second grubbiest borough in London.

Council Leader Tony Arbour has dismissed the figures as grossly inaccurate and out of date' and claims the article was politically motivated. He has written to the Mayor accusing him of using the committee to make himself more powerful, saying: "Richmond upon Thames supported the Capital Standards Programme.

"However this article leads us to suppose that it is geared to making you more powerful rather than improving the London environment.

"We believe that the Capital Standards Programme was being used to increase the Mayor's political power rather than giving really useful help. We have made considerable strides forward in street cleaning."Richmond's Head of Environmental Services, Malcolm Sharp, who chaired the programme over the last year, resigned last Friday. Speaking of his resignation, Cllr Arbour said: "It was with regret that we resigned the chair of the Capital Standards Programme. It is with further regret that I am now announcing that Richmond will play no further role in this programme.

"Over the last year we have worked hard to make this programme a success. It was a new initiative and one with considerable potential for improving the environment and street scene across our city. We believe however it has been turned into a vehicle for raising Ken's profile and increasing his political power. He needs to recognise that London is more important than Livingstone!

"When we gave our support it was on the understanding that politics would be kept out.

"Last month the Mayor published a supposed league table of London's cleanest and dirtiest boroughs. The article failed to point out that the information was almost three years old. It also failed to point out that the figures were the result of self-assessment with different boroughs applying different standards."