A BID by traders - who say they feel "abandoned" - to secure a reduction in their business rates has failed.

Four shops in Bridge Street, Stourport, tried to get their bills down following last year's catastrophes of foot-and-mouth and the widespread flooding which hit business.

But just one won a reduction from the tribunal which examined the business rates set by the Valuation Office.

David Taylor, owner of the OK Caf, also called for what he claimed were the "Albanian" state of the pavements, the closure of public toilets in Raven Street and the lack of free parking to be taken into account.

The tribunal declared it was "wholly sympathetic" to the traders' plight and the "difficulties that faced rural economies" but it said "rental levels would have reflected intrinsic and extrinsic qualities of the town."