MORE council staff will be hired to hand out fines to people cycling through the city centre, feeding gulls and aggressively begging.

Worcester City Council has earmarked £60,000 to potentially hire two new enforcement officers to hand out the punishments set by Worcester’s soon-to-be introduced public space protection order (PSPO).

Councillor Alan Amos, who has led the call for the extra money, said the council has not been taking the problem seriously and has not been enforcing the rules.

Cllr Amos said "selfish, lazy and idiotic cyclists” riding down the High Street, “vicious, greedy gulls” and “unnecessary” aggressive begging were the three biggest problems in Worcester, according to the public.

"One of the problems with the council is that there is a distinct lack of enforcement,” he said.

"If we are going to have [the public space protection order] and if we are going to extend our powers then we need to be able to enforce it. We need to take it seriously.

"There are three important issues that people have said are the biggest problem. They are major concerns.”

Cllr Amos said the council needed to get a grip and start handing out penalties before an already serious problem got even worse. The councillor said it would only be a matter of time before somebody walking through Worcester was killed or seriously injured by a cyclist riding their bike when they were not supposed to be.

"The gulls will be coming back around March and April time and it will be much, much worse than last year because the efforts to control those vicious, greedy creatures has been a complete failure, let's be honest,” he said. “They are a real menace.”

“And yet people still feed them and if people continue to feed them that is going to make a very serious problem even worse. We need to enforce it. We really do.

“Somebody could be killed. It has already happened in Hereford and it could only be a matter of time before it happens in Worcester. Somebody could be seriously hurt or even killed by a selfish cyclist riding up and down the High Street.

Plans to introduce a PSPO for the city centre were first put forward in January last year. Councillors agreed to a public consultation before postponing a decision in November due to the wording of the order.

“There has been no enforcement and if there continues to be no enforcement the problem is just going to get worse.

"We have to be logical about it and we have to be honest. This is what people have said are there biggest concerns and we need to listen. We have to act on their concerns.

"If we don’t do something the city will degenerate into something unattractive. We want people to be able to walk and shop and eat in restaurants on the High Street and they should not have to be fearful that people will be demanding money from them.

"People who live and work and visit the city should be able to walk down our beautiful High Street without having to fear being knocked over by these idiot cyclists. People should not have to fear being attacked by vicious and aggressive gulls. People should not have to fear walking down the High Street and have to be harassed and molested by aggressive beggars.

“It is unnecessary, and we don’t want it here.”