RUBBISH being dumped along Offerton Lane in Worcester could stop ambulances reaching the gipsy site in an emergency, a county councillor warned.

County councillor John Buckley told Warndon Parish Council the site was in the worst state he had ever seen.

Coun Buckley said a health visitor had contacted Mike Harrison, head of operational services at the city council, after visiting the site.

The woman, who was not named, was worried an ambulance might have difficulty reaching it because tree cuttings were strewn across the road.

"This is something people have been talking about for a long time, and there must be a permanent solution," said Coun Buckley.

He proposed a number of solutions, including building small walls over the ditches where the road had been expanded.

The walls would stop people filling the ditches with rubbish but would not be too tall to stop caravans turning around.

Changing the road into a simple access road for the site might also help to solve the problem because the responsibility for keeping it clear would fall on the gipsies, Coun Buckley suggested.

"I'm sure it's being done by local people and people who live there," he said.

Mr Harrison said the city council cleared the site every two months, but people were continuing to dump rubbish there.

Fly-tipping, he said, cost the council a considerable amount of money because it had to use private contractors.

He raised the possibility of CCTV cameras being installed along the lane so the culprits could be caught.

But he acknowledged it was dark and surrounded by tall trees, so the footage might not be clear enough to bring prosecutions.

Mr Harrison asked for skips to be left there in the hope people would use them.

Parish clerk Les Bishop said the skips left on Shap Drive in Warndon had proved very popular.

"If you put one of those big skips there people would put their stuff in," he said.