A SENIOR Worcestershire County Council official has admitted that Wyre Forest district councillors have been "let down" in a bungle over a bid for an access only order for a Kidderminster street.

The district members, councillors Mike and Fran Oborski and Siri Hayward, reacted furiously when they discovered that their campaign for the order - for Linden Avenue - had been virtually ignored, despite assurances to the contrary by the county authority.

Describing the chain of events as "a mind boggling epic of incompetence", they claimed they had been "totally misled" by county council officers.

The district councillors said the Wyre Forest Highways Partnership Forum, made up of representatives of both the district and county authorities, had agreed unanimously to ask partnership manager Stuart Reynolds to proceed with formal proposals for the access only order.

That was in September last year. In May this year, according to the Wyre Forest councillors, Fran Oborski was given assurances that the proposal was being processed at County Hall in Worcester.

They said they were also told that there had been "no response" from the Government's Highways Agency and that the access only order was "definitely going ahead".

When the forum met last Friday, the meeting agenda said the access order should "not go ahead" as it was opposed by the police and the Highways Agency and that even the district council could not support it in the face of police opposition.

Councillor Mike Oborski said: "In other words, since September 1999, the officers have told members that the proposals for an access only order in Linden Avenue were being processed and, indeed, that the proposal was definitely going ahead while, in reality, they had done absolutely nothing."

Jeff Romanis, head of transportation and highways at Worcestershire County Council, said: "The county council view is that the local members - county and district - have been let down and the proposal needs to be started again from scratch."

Councillor Mike Oborski is demanding a full inquiry into the matter by the county council and "urgent action" to carry out the proper process to get an access order, "without delay".