SOCIAL services workers cannot live in a disused caretaker's house at a Kidderminster school for practical reasons, according to a Worcestershire County Council spokesman.

The authority was slammed in a Liberal newsletter, distributed in Kidderminster, for paying to rent a house on the Baxter Gardens estate for three years - at a total cost of £9,000 - to accommodate the workers when the house at St George's First School, in Plane Tree Close, is standing empty.

In an article headed "This Would Be Funny If It Wasn't Going To Cost You Money", the party said no decision would be made on the future of the county council-owned house until after the Wyre Forest Schools Review in a couple of years.

It criticised the decision to pay to rent a house, concluding: "Hasn't it occurred to them to use the empty house they actually already own?"

District and county councillor Fran Oborski said the workers would be based at the Freda Eddy Centre and told the Shuttle/Times & News the situation with the house was "ludicrous".

However, a county council spokesman said there could be a problem if a caretaker was to be moved back into the house following the conclusion of the schools review and someone was already living there.

He added anyone planning to live on school land would be subject to compulsory and strict criminal records bureau checks, which could take up to three months to carry out.