A STOURPORT businessman fears visitors are getting poor first impressions of the town due to the appalling state of a traffic island on a main road.

Neil Morris, who is director of OGL Computer, has raised concerns about the island outside the company’s Worcester Road base with Worcestershire County Council.

The area is damaged and overgrown, despite still having a ‘National Garden Scheme’ sign placed on it.

Mr Morris, who is also chairman of the ReWyre consortium dedicated to driving regeneration in the district, said his company used to sponsor the island but it has since been neglected.

Worcestershire County Council said work to tidy up the area had been delayed by the poor weather earlier this year but preparations were being made to rectify it.

Mr Morris said: “The island was damaged by a vehicle last year and since then it’s been in a state of disrepair and is overgrown with weeds. Ironically, at present it has a National Garden Scheme sign on it!

“OGL has visitors on a daily basis from all over the UK and it doesn’t give a very good first impression of Stourport.

“We used to sponsor the island. Then it was covered in flowers and beautifully maintained, locals used to write thanking us for the sponsorship.

“I’m not sure where it is in the Council’s priority list, but it should have been sorted by the summer as thousands flock to Stourport at the weekends.”

A Worcestershire County Council spokesman said: "We are in the final stages of preparations for the works on the Traffic Island on Worcester Road.

“Unfortunately, the project has been delayed due to the impact of the winter weather we experienced earlier this year.

“We are currently liaising with our Streetworks team in order to provide a provisional date for the works, to take into account other works in the surrounding areas."