A PROJECT to remove tons of illegal waste from a Worcester lane has not gone far enough, according to one critic.

Mike Robbins, operations director for Worcester Rugby Club, has dubbed the rubbish abandoned in Offerton Lane a "faade of filth".

Mr Robbins says that despite moves by Worcester City Council to remove 200 tons of waste, there is still a mountain of rubbish blocking the lane.

"Quite recently, the Evening News trumpeted jubilantly that the mountain of rubbish at the gipsy site end would be cleared away," he said.

"Councillors Stephen Inman and John Buckley were both pictured up to their elbows in waste. The intimation was that pedestrians would enjoy free passage from one end of the lane to the other.

"However, it was with total horror that, on a recent visit to the site, I discovered that three fifths of the rubbish mountain remained.

"The question should be asked as to why such a minimal amount of effort was put into a project which deserves the full weight of every agency's ministrations - unless, of course, the answer is one of political expediency.

"May I remind the council that Offerton Lane has been de-regulated and as a consequence, the Highways Agency should hold ultimate responsibility for upkeep and maintenance.

"Instead, the lane seems to have been abandoned to be despoiled by, in the main, an ethnic minority who make no contribution to the neighbourhood.

"To add insult to injury, the site that has been cleared after these recent attentions is the frontage on to the gipsy site itself.

"The side facing one of the biggest ratepayers in the area - Worcester Rugby Club - presents an impassable faade of filth.

"If lack of finance is the overriding factor in bringing about the early cessation of the recent rubbish clearance, Offerton Lane was understood to be the subject of dedicated funds from the developers of the Shire Park Industrial Park Estate.''