A year after Worcester City Council made national headlines for warning the public about the danger of falling pears the council has decided no signs are necessary this time.

However, they say it is nothing to do with the adverse publicity they received as a result of last autumn's actions but purely to do with the city parks having a dedicated gardener.

Ian Yates, parks and cemeteries manager for Worcester City Council said: "We reorganised the teams and each park has a dedicated gardener. That way when the pears fall we have them cleaned up straight away. At this stage I do not think we will have to put the signs up again as the dedicated gardener seems to have solved the problem."

Last October national newspapers and television news picked up on the story exclusively revealed by the Worcester News where two black pear trees in Cripplegate Park, St John's, were cordoned off with tape and the trees had signs attached to them saying Warning pears falling.' Many people felt it was an indictment of the blame culture in modern society which has manifested in recent years, and the council was covering itself in case of law suits by people claiming to be injured by the pears.

Mr Yates said he didn't feel it was in his jurisdiction to comment on whether last year's publicity had been damaging for the city council but said it had made his job easier.

He said: "My job was to highlight to the public that there were falling pears and there is no doubt that the publicity helped me to do my job."