THE Mayor of Worcester Councillor Alan 'fiasco' Amos has flung himself into his civic duties now his holidays are over, but the critics aren't letting him forget just how he went about grabbing those chains.

He'd barely placed his feet back under the table inside the mayor's parlour last week when a Worcester resident sent him an email, also copied to The Source, detailing the names of all 289 people to have signed the petition calling upon his resignation.

Sure, it included plenty of angry members of Worcester Labour Party, but The Source was struck by how many ordinary people had lent their names to the list - magistrates, pensioners, volunteers, students, business people.

As for the comments - "naked corruption", "shameful", "disgraceful", "the rotter", "too disgusted for words", "an affront to democracy", "a stitch-up", "fiasco", "appalled beyond words", "an act of skulduggery", "a sham", "a joke", "makes Worcester look a laughing stock".

And those were the kinder ones.

* WHILE we're examining the mayor's in-tray, among the latest flurry of correspondence on Cllr Amos to arrive at The Source's desk was a wonderful article in The Guardian printed back in 2000.

The piece in question detailed how our Alan had suddenly appeared on Labour's approved list to become a parliamentary candidate despite his past as a right-wing, outspoken pro-flogging Tory MP who served under Thatcher and Major.

A year after the article went to press, incidentally, he did stand for Labour in the Hertfordshire seat of Hitchin and Harpenden, but lost to current Conservative MP Peter Lilley.

In The Guardian interview they described our current mayor as doing "a volte-face", suggesting it was one of the most remarkable switches of that period in British political history.

Cllr Amos told the newspaper his switch was "a very courageous, very difficult decision to make", rejecting any notion that his move at the time was 'opportunism'.

Very courageous eh. No wonder he was so miffed when his ambitions to become Worcester's MP were rebuffed.

* YOU may have noticed a story ran by the BBC last month revealing how Herefordshire Council made £46,000 by refusing to give change in its car parks.

The piece also mentioned Worcester City Council making well over £2 million from parking charges, but neglected to tell people how much of that sum was "overpaid" by those without the correct change - and we know why.

Back in April we sent the city council our own Freedom of Information request on the matter, only to be told their data only includes "total payments" as the 'over-payments' have never been recorded by the pay-and-display machines.

Ever get the feeling you're being fleeced?