A COUNCILLOR was branded "patronising and arrogant" for his response to a report into making children's school journeys safer.

A group of backbench Worcestershire county councillors spent a year looking into Safer Routes to School schemes, with recommendations including 20mph zones to protect pupils.

But they were left angered after the cabinet member responsible for transport, Coun Alwyn Davies, wrote them a five-paragraph reply.

"It's very disappointing to have it brushed off," Coun Liz Tucker, one of four councillors who led the scrutiny work, told Monday's cabinet meeting.

"I can't describe the hard work - we had to cut through the sunny signs of success to get to the real facts."

Coun Peter Carter, vice-chairman of the council's environment scrutiny panel, described Coun Davies as "patronising and arrogant" for the response and promise to meet him and the panel's chairman.

"There are 12 members of this panel and every cabinet member wants to know what his response is in detail," he said.

"This is wholly unsatisfactory. Which bits does he agree with and which bits doesn't he agree with?" added cabinet member Coun Tom Wells.

Coun Alwyn Davies said he did not want to spend the entire meeting going through each of the 19 recommendations, which included focusing funding on projects expected to work best and improved monitoring of success rates.

"A lot of them are being implemented - a lot I agree with, a few I don't," he explained.

"I'm sorry if I've upset one or two people. I'm not trying to hide anything. I've tried to be as open as I was with the chairman before the meeting."

The cabinet agreed that Coun Davies would attend a meeting of the scrutiny group and then present an action plan addressing the report.