Environment Agency and Severn Trent officers were this week working to discover the source of an oil slick that has polluted a Malvern brook.

The brook, which runs through Victoria Park, was fenced off by Malvern Town Council earlier in the week after Severn Trent installed equipment to soak up the pollution.

Christobel Wilson, secretary of Park Close Residents' Association, said fumes from the brook, which runs through her garden, were so bad when it first became polluted a month ago that they gave her a sore throat when she went outside.

She said that despite repeated calls to Malvern Hills District Council's Environmental Health Department, no action was taken until one of her neighbours contacted Severn Trent.

Neighbour Peter Shepherd said he had seen blue tits die in the dirty water and voiced fears that children could be poisoned.

Town clerk Shirley Young said the council believed it had solved the problem when workers removed a discarded oil can during clean-ups over the weekend.

But since EA officers confirmed that the pollution was still leaking into the water supply, the council was now awaiting directions from the Environment Agency.

"Whatever they instruct us to do, we will do it," she said.