IMAGINE, if you can, living next to this - a house that has been empty for 12 months, has scrapped cars on the front lawn and rats invading the back of the property.

It's a picture more likely to be found in a decaying city in the Third World rather than a scene from the streets of the Faithful City.

But it's a situation which Worcester grandmother Susan Hopkins faces every day of her life at her home in Dines Green.

And the nightmare has become so bad that she will not let her two-year-old grandson, Nathan, play in her garden because of the rat infestation next door.

Mrs Hopkins claims that the city council said the neighbouring house would be cleared by the end of August.

But it's now six days into September and nothing has changed.

On one hand, local people believe the tenant of the Tudor Way house has moved on - and will not be coming back to it.

The council, on the other hand, says it's working with the tenants of the empty to house to "make sure that the property will be occupied".

But even if that's the case it will - understandably - be cold comfort to the neighbours, some of whom have become so concerned that they have raised the issue with Mike Foster, the city's MP.

What they want is action to clean up the property now - something, we suggest, which is not an unreasonable request.

It's clear that, while the council has a duty to individual tenants, it also has a duty to the neighbours.

In recent years, the council has proved by its actions over noisy tenants in other parts of Worcester that it takes seriously its responsibility to concerned neighbours.

Now is the moment for it to re-emphasise that commitment. It should sort out this mess in Tudor Way without any further delay.