THE future King Charles II fled down it after the Battle of Worcester, female soldier Hannah Snell was born roughly opposite where the Tudor House Museum now stands... and these days it's bursting with life as a busy trading thoroughfare.

So. There's every reason to ensure that the business community of Friar Street is encouraged, nurtured and generally looked after for the good of the Faithful City, yes?

Sadly, it would appear the answer's no - for how else can we account for the idiotic decision to close the street on Saturday so that a crane could shift steel into an empty unit of wasteland?

Worcestershire County Council is responsible for highways and this newspaper detects the unmistakable sound of a buck being passed as the authority attempts to shift the blame for this debacle on to the contractors concerned.

The Worcester News simply does not accept the authority's lame attempt to sound fierce by threatening to take action over what it perceives to be the company's obligation to give businesses suitable advanced notice.

This doesn't wash with us at all - it is the county council's job to serve the taxpayer and do everything in its power to ensure citizens can go about their lawful business. It's no good thrashing around looking for someone to blame - the county must accept its role in all this.

This is not the first time that this part of Worcester has been paralysed by ill-considered schemes. We therefore fervently hope that this particular problem is quickly resolved to the satisfaction of the people worst affected... the hard-working traders of Friar Street.