HIGH street sales in April recorded their biggest fall for six years, new figures have revealed.

We can't help but feel that Worcester has contributed to this national decline - but not for want of trying.

It's just that shoppers can't actually get to the stores in the city's High Street without dodging past vast rumbling diggers or a maze of wire fences, cordoning off piles of rubble.

Let's face it, the supposed refurbishment of the city's premier shopping thoroughfare has been an utter shambles.

It has dragged on and on and on. The original round of work was supposedly finished - and then had to be repaired within months.

The discovery of mediaeval cellars didn't help, then the weather was blamed, delivery trucks and - well, just about everything else.

Now, we are promised by city engineer Andy Walford, the work will be "mostly" finished by the May Bank Holiday - eight months behind schedule.

Of course, "mostly" finished does in fact mean "not actually finished at all".

When will we be rid of this mess? When will the High Street return to a fit state for shoppers and traders?

Mr Walford has compared the redevelopment work to trying to decorate the kitchen on Christmas Day.

Well, whatever the state of the walls, we think the turkey is a bit overdone now, don't you?