Rubbish on streets will deter tourists

Kim Dowling, landlady at The Cricketers pub in Angel Street, said she had to take to the streets herself to pick up rubbish because the situation was so bad.

Mrs Dowling, her barman, and Ann King, the manager of McDonald's in the High Street went out to clean up outside their premises at 2.30pm on Sunday, July 21.

"We filled four bin bags with rubbish," she said.

"It was absolutely disgusting, the whole of the city centre was a mess of rubbish.

"There has been rubbish before but it has never been this bad.

"And it attracts the seagulls and they are a real pain."

The mess on the streets would also create a bad impression to visitors, Mrs Dowling warned.

"We had some people from New Zealand come into the pub saying that it was filthy around here," she said.

"It's bad for the city because they are going to say, 'you don't want to go there'."

Mrs Dowling, aged 44, said the streets had been cleaned on Saturday, July 20, in the afternoon, but the cleaner could not do a throughout job because the streets were busy with people walking.

Then the streets were not cleaned on Sunday leaving all the mess of Saturday night lying on the ground from the High Street down to the Cathedral.

"There were paper wrappers, and flyers from pubs," she said.

"And there are no bins."

Mrs Dowling said she would like to see more bins outside the takeaway restaurants along Angel Street.

"Not everybody uses the bins but some might and at the moment they don't have the chance."

Head of Worcester City Council's operations' service Mike Harrison said this was a knock-on effect of the strike last Wednesday, July 17.

Because staff had not worked a full 37 hours that week they would not get double time pay for the early morning sweep on Sunday, and were reluctant to do it.

"What it does show is what a good job they normally do," said Mr Harrison.

"I can only apologise - it was a mess.

"Hopefully it will only be a one-off."