TAXPAYERS will have to fork out £125,000 to replace "shoddy" renovation work in Stourport-on-Severn's High Street.

The bombshell comes just five years after the street was refurbished with bricks and cobblestones at a cost of £400,000.

Relaying the road surface will cost £25,000, while pavements and cobblestones will also have to be relaid and kerbstones replaced.

This comes on top of 1999's remedial work because bollards were unstable, pavement blocks were mismatched and the road had lost its skid resistance.

There have been long-running fears that loose stones could be used as "missiles" by vandals and town leaders have waged a five-year battle to bring the street up to scratch.

Now, the new revelations have brought a call for heads to roll.

Wyre Forest district councillor Brian Glass, who runs a High Street dry cleaners, is furious taxpayers are being asked to pick up the bill, arguing Worcestershire County Council should never have accepted the "shoddy" work.

It took over responsibility for maintenance of the street from the contractors in November 1998.

"It shouldn't have adopted it until it was done to a satisfactory standard," Mr Glass said.

"Now they're telling us it'll cost £125,000 to put it right. That cannot come out of the public purse. I want somebody's head for spending public money on trash. "

Mr Glass claimed the county council's best value policy had gone "out of the window".

"I'm totally disgusted," he added.

John Gordon, county councillor for Mitton, agreed.

"This estimate underlines the fact that the workmanship wasn't good in the first place. It should never have been accepted and taken over by the county council."

He argued the contractors should be asked to contribute and added he wanted work to start as soon as possible.

The £125,000 figure has been costed by Wyre Forest Highways Partnership manager Stuart Reynolds after a site visit in May.

John Smith, county councillor responsible for roads, said it was "still up for debate" whether the repairs would be implemented.

"We may have to take it section by section - it might take three or four years. If we were to do the whole scheme with the Highways Partnership budget there'd be no money to spend on other things.

"But I guess a large proportion may have to come from the Highways Partnership budget."

He said the road was not dangerous, but admitted it was not "100 per cent satisfactory".

"We want to get it up to the standard residents expect," he added.