A POPULAR fountain, installed in Evesham's Riverside Shopping Centre about seven years ago, will not be coming back because it will cost around £15,000 to refurbish.

The water feature, which had a number of internal problems, also ran into trouble after it was abused by certain visitors to the shopping centre.

Bob Carr, manager of Evesham's Riverside Shopping Centre said just some of the problems encountered were pennies being thrown into the fountain, which caused the copper to go into the water, bubble bath being poured into the water and rubbish thrown in.

" A gasket had blown and when the gasket blows the water comes over the side," he said.

"Over the past year it took ages waiting for parts for the fountain."

The fountain had been in Riverside Shopping Centre for seven years and would have cost around £15,000 to transform to its original condition.

It stopped working around two months ago, and was taken away a few weeks ago.

A flat piece of concrete cordoned off now remains.

Mr Carr said it would be replaced with another feature, but no decision had been made yet on the type of feature, or when the replacement would take place.

A number of people living in and around the Vale have now come up with their own ideas of what they would like to see the fountain replaced with.