CALLS are being made to splash £120,000 of taxpayers' money on tackling seagulls, restoring street signs and improving CCTV in Worcester.

Worcester City Council's Labour leadership is being challenged by the Tories to start spending some more money left over from a whack of surplus cash.

The Conservative blueprint includes:

- £80,000 on improving CCTV cameras on the city, which follows serious concern that many are in a poor condition

- An extra £15,000 on getting pesky seagulls out of Worcester after a summer of repeated public concern

- £25,000 for replacing or restoring street name plates, extending an existing maintenance programme which has given many areas a new lease-of-life

A motion has been put together which is going to be voted on during a full council meeting on Thursday at the Guildhall.

The bid comes after the council ended the 2015/16 financial year at the end of March with a better-than-expected wad of surplus money.

The motion says the Tories are "deeply concerned" that the money is "not being used to improve services for the people of Worcester".

Conservative Councillor Chris Mitchell, a former city council deputy leader, said: "For me, I don't like putting aside amounts of money like this without earmarking it towards something.

"We know there is an issue with seagulls in the city so let's do more about it, maintenance of our street signs is an ongoing issue, and CCTV is a key asset in preventing crime."

The motion calls for staff to draw up separate business cases for each area of investment, before taking it back to full council for another vote in November.

Some CCTV cameras are believed to be in such a poor condition that they are not capable of rotating properly.

The street plates investment would be on top of the current two-year £40,000 replacement programme which will see around 400 signs repaired by 2017.

Seagulls were never far off the agenda over the summer, including one incident where a woman was bit in Worcester and claims of the birds 'dive-bombing' people in St John's.

The Conservative group has also asked the city's lone Green Councillor Louis Stephen to suggest additional ideas for spending surplus cash, saying £237,000 is sat aside in a fund called the 'change reserve'.

The Labour leadership says it will form a view prior to the meeting.

Councillor Adrian Gregson, the leader, said: "There is an issue of irony, that we get this after being told 'you don't know what you are doing, there is no money'.

"If these things are important, why didn't they raise these issues earlier?

"This is designed to try and make political mileage, it's not really about responsible finance, but I'm glad they are taking an interest in the budget.

"We will have a look at it and form a view before Thursday."