The council's Cabinet has agreed to invest £500,000 in eight areas - highways, streets, public toilets, lighting, road signs, trees and hedges, bridges and the winter service.

In a 60-page document, the council lists what it plans to do in each area but the main aims are to inspect and maintain footpaths and roads, tackle litter, fly-posting and graffiti and to provide clean and safe public toilets at a number of places around the city.

Officers will also clear snow and grit roads as much as possible to keep traffic moving, minimise delays and protect pedestrains from slipping.

The new ruling Lib Dems have also scrapped the controversial Closing the Gap policy. This was introduced by Labour and prioritised the city's seven most deprived areas.

Those neighbourhoods were first in the queue for any repairs as Labour said it was an attempt to bring struggling neighbourhoods up to the same standard as the rest of the city.

But the Lib Dems dubbed it Labour's "favoured areas" policy and said it was a postcode lottery.

They say from now on services such as repairing street lights, filling in potholes and cleaning gullies will be decided on a "worst first" principle.

Coun Sylvia Dunkley, Cabinet member for streetscene, said under Labour the provision of basic services could be skewed because designated neighbourhoods were awarded extra points when deciding priority.

She said: "Labour's 'favoured areas' policy for basic council services was unfair, divisive and could have had serious consequences.

"For example, faulty streetlights in an area with high night-time crime statistics could have been neglected due to streetlights in a 'favoured area' getting a higher score.

"We fundamentally disagreed with this when we were in opposition, so now local people have given us control we are moving quickly to introduce a system that works for everyone in Sheffield."