LEDBURY Town Council looks set to take on an overgrown roundabout in the Ledbury bypass which residents fear is "an accident waiting to happen".

Concerned residents say they will still monitor the situation.

A petition, calling for action at the roundabout, close to the Lower Road junction, will not be scrapped but will be put on hold instead, pending the outcome of the town council decision.

The town council will decide at next month's full town council meeting on July 21 whether or not to take on a cultivation licence for the island from Herefordshire's Contractor, Balfour Beatty.

But if full council approves the recommendation, from the town's finance committee, the work on the island will be actually carried out by local businesses and groups, under the wing of the town council.

Cllr Bob Barnes said: "Balfour Beattie will only issue a cultivation licence to a local authority, such as a council.

"Local businesses and volunteers will be able to take on the island under the town council's licence."

In fact, there have already been improvements, ahead of next month's full town council meeting.

Last weekend Heineken, which has a plant on the nearby Little Marcle Road, and Countrywide, which has a store off the Dymock Road, joined forces to get the island tidied up.

Local resident, Margaret Johnson, who was organising the petition, welcomed the work which she had made the island "sixty per cent better than it was".

But she added: "There are still places where the island is dangerous."

Residents fear that someone could be seriously hurt or killed crossing the bypass as the long grass and tall bushes and trees make it very hard to see even lorries coming round the island.

Dog walkers and other residents cross there regularly from Lower Road, to get to the signposted Riverside Walk beauty spot and picnic area on the other side of the bypass.

An old man was knocked off his bike there, earlier this year, and taken to hospital with bruising.

Mrs Johnson added: "I'll keep the petition and, if the island is not being looked after in the future, I'll start it up again.

"I've been on contact with the council for two years now about this island, and nobody's listened."