A PARISH councillor has been reunited with his specially-adapted electric tricycle after a response to an appeal in the Shuttle/Times & News.

Stephen Rushton, Wolverley and Cookley parish councillor, said he was "delighted" to get his £800 Electro Ped tricycle back after it was stolen from outside his house, in Bridge Road, Cookley.

Thieves had managed to lift the tricycle up 12 steps to the roadside before riding off.

Mr Rushton alerted the police and the theft was reported in this newspaper a few days later, where it was spotted by Neil Vivash, chief production engineer at specialist wheel-maker, Titan Steel Wheels.

Mr Vivash had discovered the Electro Ped in a secluded right of way near the factory, in Bridge Road, and taken it to a lock-up on the site for safe-keeping.

When he later read the appeal, he put two and two together and phoned the police, who were then able to reunite Mr Rushton with his tricycle.

Mr Vivash said Mr Rushton had been delighted when he turned up to identify the trike.

Mr Rushton, 60, could only guess at why thieves might have dumped the bike so close to his home.

He explained the battery which powers the three-wheeler was in his home at the time of the incident, meaning the thieves would have had to be "extremely fit" to pedal it away.

He added: "I believe it is the only one in Kidderminster. Smiths Cycles adapted it for me from a two-wheel version."

The keen cyclist encouraged more people to contact the police to report anything suspicious, no matter how minor it appeared.

Mr Rushton, a former Kidderminster Mayor, said: "The police can only operate if they get information.

"People are sometimes very loath to ring up but what they report, no matter how insignificant, could add up to something else."

PC Sally Sliwinska, local policing officer, said: "We're glad that we were able to get Mr Rushton's bike back for him."