A WORCESTER councillor has hit out at the city's congestion - saying St John's is suffering "gridlock every day".

Councillor Richard Udall says he wants fresh answers from the county council after criticising the all-too-regular hold-ups around the city.

He says he fears too many businesses are suffering, pointing to the so-called village in the city's problems in particular.

Council bosses have responded by pointing to the overhaul of the A4440 Souther Link Road.

"St John’s is now almost cut off from the rest of the city at peak traffic times," said Councillor Udall.

"Cars, lorries and vans travel at snail's pace, gridlock is now damaging the local economy.

"Local business are telling me that employees are late for work and goods and services struggle to get in and out of St John's.

"They have told me they are looking to relocate away from St John’s simply to get away from the gridlock - we will be losing jobs and resources and it needs urgent and decisive action from the council to put this right."

He told your Worcester News cuts to the highways and transport budgets at County Hall, which included closing Perdiswell's park and ride and slashing subsidies for buses, has made the situation worse.

"The council's leadership is obsessed with the Southern Link Road, but it is only part of the problem," he said.

"We need to complete the orbital road and construct a new crossing across the river to the north of the city - we also need to take through traffic out of Worcester and we need to re-invest in and re-open park and ride schemes."

The criticism has been rejected by the authority, which has pointed to measures like the current £41 million dualling of most of the A4440 Southern Link Road.

A spokesman said: "Worcestershire's Strategic Economic Plan, supported by the county council, the local Enterprise Partnership, all of Worcestershire's MPs, our district and city council partners, has identified dualling the Southern Link Road as one of the top transport priorities for Worcester together with improvements to key transport corridors through the city.

"More than 30,000 vehicles use the Southern Link Road, constructed in the 1980s, each weekday and we have already completed phase one at Whittington island, phase two at the Ketch roundabout and are currently working on phase three at Norton roundabout.

"All of our partners also support our business case for funding for phase four ( a £70 million proposed dualling of Carrington Bridge) which has recently been submitted to the Government."