THE St John's area of Worcester is "like a ghost town" with calls for action to be taken to help traders.

Residents and traders have told the Worcester News something needs to be done to be prevent the area become further rundown.

Hope Brown, a St John's resident, said: "I want to stress St John's is becoming a ghost town.

"There is not a lot going on in St John's now, and I think we need a Costa to get more people to visit St Johns - there is a lot of empty buildings. St John's need some more shops."

Traders told the Worcester News they were particularly concerned about the lack of parking bays, and if the parking situation improved that would help footfall.

The lack of parking bays on the B4466, Malvern Road and that Sainsbury's car parking only has a limit of two hours, were major issues highlighted.

Lisa Watkins, owner of Studio5 said: "There is a lot of empty units around here.

"The old Zig Zag nightclub has not been open for years. It has just been left as a derelict building.

"They need better parking round here.

"Two hours on Sainsbury's is not enough - it's a real issue for us. People don't have time to visit us for a colour."

Jon Orton, manager of First Paige, said: "There are more and more flats in this area, more cars, where are they all going to go?

"We would like something to be done about the parking - there is very few spaces, and if they extended Sainsbury's limit that would definitely help."

A spokesman for Sainsbury's said: "Customers are welcome to use our St John’s store car park for free for up to two hours.

"During this time they also benefit from easy access to other shops. This time limit is in place to ensure there are spaces available to customers when they need them."

Attempts to contact the owner of the land where the former nightclub is based proved unsuccessfully. Worcestershire County Council did not respond before our deadline.