Graffiti was cleaned off, planting beds spruced up and food safety checks made during the latest action blitzes.

Harrow Council officials and police officers descended on the area around Rayners Lane Tube Station in Rayners Lane, South Harrow, on Monday to begin tidying up the neighbourhood.

The rears of cafés and restaurants were examined to ensure food was properly stored, while out the front, council employees checked that boxes and market stalls were not obstructing the footpaths.

This was the 11th week of action that the authority has carried out.

These are five-day-long projects where fly- tipping is cleared away and rubbish is tidied, while the council and other partners in the drive hand out advice or conduct spot checks and inspections.

Councillor Susan Hall (Conservative), Harrow Council's portfolio holder for environment services, said: "Fly-tipping, graffiti and rubbish dumping are eyesores, and they can really drag an area down.

"All the weeks of action are designed to be intensive clean-ups. But they also become the start of a relationship for some residents with the council, or the Safer Neighbourhood Teams, and they are designed to show local people that Harrow is getting better - starting with the streets they live on."