FORMER Worcester Mayor Mike Layland, who is the sitting councillor for the ward, said the area needed more visible policing.

"I have got old folks on Canterbury Road who go to bed at 5.30pm because they are afraid," he said.

He also agreed that there was a real need for play facilities.

"I took issue when the plans for housing on the Ronkswood Hospital site were approved," he said. "I said then that a play area should be included."

"I will continue to push the need for these facilities for our young people," he added.

Coun Layland said the problem of junk should start to improve thanks to the re-introduction of skips around the city to collect bulky waste.

"Labour took away the skips," he said. "But they are back now for four hours every second Saturday in the month on Liverpool Road."

The former High Sheriff of Worcester said Ronkswood Community Centre should be open and available to the elderly and other groups all week.

"It was no good having a facility if it was not open seven days a week," he said.

"Ronkswood Community Centre has been vandalised so often that it has put a lot of people off.

"But we desperately need more facilities, particularly for the old folk."

Coun Layland, who is the chairman of Perdiswell Young People's Leisure Club, said he would also be lobbying for improvements to the accommodation being offered to homeless families in the city.

And he would continue to press the need for more parking at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.