Day dawns to dirty diapers, dog mess and drug needles

But having spent a morning with a couple of street sweepers in Pinehurst and Penhill I'm almost ready to sign up.

These guys earn less than £6 an hour to clean up our vomit, nappies and needles so that we can walk down the streets safely and in a pleasant environment.

Meanwhile the first-round losers in last week's World Match Play Championships at Wentworth earned £60,000 for playing golf for one day and not winning.

Street sweepers Fred Howe and Ray Mills would probably be quite happy on a golf course, but I doubt the world's number one golfer Vijay Singh would be keen on risking his health on the streets of Pinehurst for not much more than the minimum wage.

Father-of-three Fred, 48, who lives in Westlea and has been in the job for 11 years, said: "We start at 6.30 in the morning getting the shopping areas presentable for opening time. We finish in the early afternoon, just in time for the school kids to throw their breakfast all over the pavement again.

"But you can't always blame the kids. When they see beds, fridges, freezers and shopping trolleys dumped everywhere they are hardly going to be bothered about dropping a chewing gum wrapper."

They have long since ceased to be amazed at the number of shopping trolleys they find.

Fred said: "People take them home and then dump them. Asda must be losing a fortune."

There are three things they most dislike finding. Nappies, dog mess and needles.

Ray, 51, from Eldene, is married with two children and has been a street sweeper for about four years, but has worked for Swindon Borough Council for 31 years.

He said: "I really don't like people dumping nappies. It would be okay if they were in bags but they just chuck them on the ground."

A hypodermic needle had been found by another team in Grange Park that morning.

Fred said: "We found one last week in Penhill, just thrown in a hedge."

Whatever the difficulties of the job they manage to keep a great sense of humour but one thing that clearly does upset them is their public image. Ray said: "We get slagged off by the public but we do our jobs properly.

"Sometimes the public say the shops are in a terrible state but there are thousands of people using this area and they can throw rubbish down quicker than Ray and I can pick it up."

"It was brilliant when Euro 2004 was on because everyone stayed inside."

Fred added: "Ideally what we need is for it to rain for 24 hours a day to keep everybody in. We pray for rain and cold, dark nights.

"People wouldn't criticise the council if they saw the tonnes of stuff collected daily. Without the council we would all be knee-deep in rubbish within a week."

We carried on walking around Pinehurst and they showed me what they have to deal with on a typical day. Tedder Close was littered with beer cans and rubbish bags. I spotted a car wheel, an old pram and a bike frame.

Ray pointed out that this had all accumulated since they were last in that street, just two days ago.

And while they were telling me stories about how people dump three-piece suites in the street, I could not believe my eyes as I watched over their shoulder as a man carried a sofa out of his house and dumped it on the pavement.

Filled with indignation, I rang his doorbell and asked him why he thought he could just abandon his sofa on the pavement. But he said that a van was coming to collect it straightaway. I sheepishly looked round for Ray and Fred, but they had very sensibly legged it.

Street sweeping is definitely not a job I would choose. But we needn't feel too much sympathy for them because on the whole they do seem to enjoy it.

Ray said: "I enjoy the job. I worked on a farm at Wanborough till I was 20, so I am used to the open air."

Fred added: "The council are pretty good to work for, and I couldn't stand being cooped up in a factory."

So next time you think about dropping that empty crisp packet or discarding your late-night kebab wrapper spare a thought for the people who do a job many of us would not be willing or able to do.

David Andrew