A KEY forum designed to help tackle congestion in Worcester has not met in more than six months - leading to claims it's been shelved.

Councillor Simon Cronin is calling on Worcestershire County Council to relaunch the highways forum, a discussion panel which used to come together quarterly.

The meetings are held between senior transport officers at County Hall and district councillors, with separate sessions with each district to talk over issues like roadworks, traffic and transport.

But the Worcester panel, which used to be paired by Councillor Alan Amos before this year's elections, has now not met since March.

Councillor Cronin was appointed to it in the spring and says he fears the sessions have been dropped at a time when congestion and roadworks are more than ever a hot talking point.

Jon Fraser, the county's head of highways, has countered by saying no decision has been made on ending it.

Councillor Cronin said: "At a time when the highways department is getting unprecedented criticism it seems like us city councillors have been stopped from using the one meaningful route we had to actually talk to the county (council).

"It took me a long to get on to the highways forum and I'm not happy about it."

The Labour councillor also raised it during a full council meeting last week, holding up recent copies of the Worcester News which featured stories about traffic congestion and roadworks on the front pages.

But Mr Fraser said he would be happy to see them start up again if anyone was unhappy.

He suggested to your Worcester News that the meetings have become less valuable because many of the concerns - like potholes for example - can be sorted out quickly rather than wait for the informal get-togethers.

"It's down to the members really, when it was set up it wasn't a formal committee but more of a discussion panel," he said.

"Over the years it's been used to report potholes and things like that but we don't need to wait for a meeting every quarter to do that - councillors can go direct to officers at any time if they've got a query.

"If there is a demand for a formal meeting we'll have one, we really don't mind and if Councillor Cronin has anything to raise he can always do so directly with us."