EXPERTS have been called in to investigate after yet more gaping cracks and holes appeared in Worcester's £1.3m High Street revamp.

Opposition councillor John Buckley, the chairman of Worcestershire County Council's scrutiny committee, will write to leading officers this week to demand a long-term solution be found to what he says is now proving to be a botched job following discovery of the latest damage.

Cracks first started to appear in the High Street nearly two years ago, just months after its expensive and highly-controversial revamp was completed, and despite the council's efforts to salvage the situation the problem simply will not go away.

"It's now quite obvious they chose materials that are not fit for purpose," Coun Buckley said. "They're just patching up a bad job. I will be writing to the director in charge immediately to say this problem is not going away. There's a major design fault here."

Coun Buckley said the damage was most likely being caused by lorries making deliveries, but criticised the council for not taking account of this when designing the new High Street.

"It's obviously the delivery lorries that are breaking it up, but they should have known that when they built it," he said. "It's time to see who's to blame for the design."

Ian Bamforth, of the council's highways and countryside division, said specialist companies were now being consulted about why the problem was occuring.

"We are very much aware of some of the issues on the High Street," he said.

"This is an unusual problem, however, as these flagstones are in operation in what appear to be similar circumstances around the UK - not least in Edinburgh. Their specification suggested they were more than up to the job.

"We are looking at a short-to-medium term fix involving relaying of slabs of a similar colour to those in place, albeit with a stronger material filling in the gaps in between.

"This material is a darker colour than the original and therefore not as attractive, but this is a shorter-term solution.

"In the long term, we are looking at a solution that is not only strong enough, but also attractive for the area.

"We want to do what's best for traders, both in terms of maintaining an attractive area for shoppers and tourists, and also ensuring vehicles can still access businesses frontages.

"We're in conversation with a number of specialist companies about potential solutions."