A DEFIANT Droitwich pensioner, who has been at loggerheads with the district council for years over unpaid business rates, looks set to be forced to pay up.

Rates rebel Nellie Copson, who owns an empty shop in the High Street, will now pay the levy of more than £3,000, after the Trustee in Bankruptcy discovered that she has more than £80,000 in her savings.

The 82-year-old spinster, who lives above the disused shop, was served with a bankruptcy petition last year and has now been ordered to pay Wychavon District Council the full £3,103 which she owes in business rates and costs.

Wychavon District Council's managing director, Sid Pritchard, said: "The council has a responsibility to collect business rates and, in my view, it would have been wrong to write off this debt simply because of Miss Copson's age.

"She was clearly in a better position to make payment than many other elderly people who strive to make sure they make their payments on time. How sad it is that public sympathy in Miss Copson's position has proved to be without foundation leading to her shop frontage being a focus for protest in many matters Wychavon has been trying to promote."

The appeal which Miss Copson lodged last month, to get her shop changed from lock-up retail to residential use so that she will not have to pay business rates, will still go ahead.

It looks set to take the form of a meeting in public and may be held in September this year.

Miss Copson declined to comment.