Street of shame

The bombshell comes just five years after the street was refurbished with bricks and cobblestones at a cost of £400,000. county councillor John Gordon and district councillor Brian Glass with loose cobblestones in Stourport High Street.

Relaying the road surface is set to be the most expensive single item at £25,000, while pavements and cobblestones will also have to be relaid and kerbstones replaced.

This comes on top of remedial work carried out in 1999 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 fully up to scratch.

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

Wyre Forest district councillor Brian Glass, who runs a dry cleaners on the High Street, has been critical of the quality of the work from the outset.

He is furious taxpayers are being asked to pick up the repair bill, arguing Worcestershire County Council should never have accepted the "shoddy" work.

It took over responsibility for maintenance of the street - following a year's initial guarantee from the contractors - in November 1998.

Mr Glass said: "It should not have adopted it as a job until it was done to a satisfactory standard."

He pointed out: "Now they're telling us it will 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, reinforced Mr Glass's comments.

"Brian is quite right. This estimate underlines the fact that the workmanship wasn't good in the first place and the design and construction was wrong.

"It should never have been accepted and taken over by the county council."

He argued the contractors should be asked to contribute towards the bill 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 following 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 us three or four years. If we were to do the whole scheme with the Highways Partnership budget there would be no other money to spend on other things.

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

He claimed the state of the road was not dangerous but admitted it was not "100 per cent satisfactory".

He added: "We want to get it up to the standard that the residents of the town expect of it."

Mr Smith said he did not know whether the contractors would pay part of the cost and declined to comment on whether the work should ever have been accepted.

But he said: "The county council do not accept schemes unless they are happy with them."

No-one from the Highways Partnership was available to comment.