Call for cash to clean up town

11:20am Sunday 11th May 2008

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STOURPORT town centre is spiralling into "vandalised dilapidation" and not enough is being done to turn things around, according to a town councillor.

Labour member, Jamie Shaw, said he was "deeply concerned" at the "down at heel and vandalised appearance" of the town centre at a council meeting.

He explained abandoned buildings, uncared-for public infrastructure and rundown shop fronts spoiled the street scene.

"An aspect of any town which gives it a sense of community and identity is its town centre. Stourport town centre is an eyesore, a disgrace and an embarrassment. It is the worst in Worcestershire," he said.

Mr Shaw believes that vandals were being encouraged by the dilapidation around them and spraying around "copious" amounts of graffiti. He challenged Wyre Forest District Council to clean up the graffiti and said it had funds available.

He added that Worcestershire County Council had neglected Stourport's "tatty" High Street for nearly 10 years.

Independent Health Concern councillor, Dixon Sheppard, said: "It seems to be taking an inordinate amount of time to get any results from the CCTV coverage."

Conservative, John Holden, district councillor for Mitton and county councillor for Stourport, said "things were moving forward" and people would start to see improvements in the next three months."

He added grants were available to tidy up shop fronts to bring them in line with work being done to regenerate the basins.

He explained that a lengthsman had been employed with an extended job description to remove graffiti, block potholes and deal with any sort of damage that might occur.

Mr Holden said he had a site meeting with the county council's highways liaison engineer, David Hunter, who told him money was available to improve the roads, on top of the £2.9 million allocated for estate roads in Wyre Forest.

At the meeting last week, Mr Shaw also unsuccessfully proposed the setting up of a new body - a town centre watch panel - to act as a watchdog.

The council resolved, instead, that the town centre should be a standard feature on the agenda of every forthcoming meeting.