Worcester City Council

Here are some of the stories the Local Democracy Reporting Service has been covering in Worcestershire:

• Worcester City Council collected more than £2m from car parking charges last year but revealed the figure was £300,000 lower than the year before.
• A claim Worcestershire County Council performed a u-turn over installing a zebra crossing in St John's has been denied by the councillor in charge of highways, who said it was never in the plans in the first place.
• A university must use its 'millions' to build more student accommodation on its campuses to stop student houses springing up across Worcester, a councillor's said.

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Plans for new powers to crack down on anti-social behaviours including "aggressive begging" in Worcester have been sent back to the drawing board for being too blunt and poorly worded.

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The city council wanted to bring in a Public Spaces Protection Order in the city centre which could have seen £100 fines handed out and even prosecutions.

But at a meeting last night, councillors said the draft public space protection order risked criminalising all forms of begging.

Other concerns included the lack of enforcement and the order will now be rewritten and delayed until January.

Seagulls in Worcester won't be culled next year after city councillors decided against the move.

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The local authority has tried out other measures, such as "gull proof" bins and using drones to replace eggs with fakes, but neither method has been deemed a success.

Last night, councillors were told a general cull would be illegal.

Instead, they'll spend £30,000 on other measures to tackle the problem and gather evidence on the bird's threat to public health.

The council has long railed about the birds in Worcester saying they are a threat to health.

A cull's being demanded by a councillor in Worcester's ongoing efforts to try and cut the number of gulls in the city.

BBC

For several years the city council has been trying to reduce the population of gulls as they're seen as a nuisance and have even been known to attack people.

Today, the owners of a pet Chihuahua said a gull had seized and flown off with the dog in Devon.

Spikes, gull-proof litter bins and replacing eggs with fake ones have all been considered or used by Worcester City Council, which claims there are now fewer gulls compared with a decade ago.

But residents and businesses in Lower Wick have told BBC Hereford and Worcester they believe there are more than ever and are calling for stronger action.

They're vicious, flying rats and they need to be culled. All the existing policies we've tried, the 'be ever so nice to gulls' policy, trying to get them to go away, they've all failed."

Worcester's ongoing efforts to try and cut the number of gulls in the city could see businesses putting spikes on their roofs this summer

BBC

The city council's been battling for several years to try and reduce the bird population as they're seen as a nuisance and have been known to attack people.

In their latest move, council staff visited dozens of businesses to encourage them to get rid of old nests, put up spikes to stop gulls perching and look at putting up netting.

The council's also working with local takeaways to cut the amount of food available for the birds to scavenge.

The top stories for the Worcester News today include:

• Man charged with murder
• Libraries saved from cuts by Worcester City Council's £157,000-a-year pledge
• Prisoner broke female governor's jaw in two places with powerful punch

Nationally the Green party has gained 42 councillors so far, with one of them winning in Worcester with almost 58% of the vote, toppling a Conservative opponent.

The success means the Green Party now has three city councillors.

The Green gain means the city council is now made up of 17 Conservatives, 15 Labour councillors and three Greens – meaning the Tories lost their overall majority.

Marjory Bisset said she was delighted to have been elected and it was a great honour.

The Conservative leader at Worcester City Council has called on the government to "get on with Brexit" after his party lost control of the authority.

BBC

Eleven of the council's 35 seats were up for election: the Tories won seven, Labour three and the Greens secured one.

In total, the Conservatives now have 17 seats after losing one to the Green Party which has a total of three.

Like many parts of the country, the Worcester Tory leader was blaming a Brexit backlash at the ballot box.

There is a message to government here, get on with Brexit, get us out of Europe quickly and I call on my colleagues in the Conservative Party who are not voting for Theresa May's deal to vote for it and let's get this deal done."