ANGRY parish councillors claim Cheshire County Council has ruined their bid to scoop a coveted community pride award.

Helsby Parish Council says its efforts to tidy the village were scuppered because the county let its former residential home Sherwood Court become an eyesore.

Parish chairman Cllr Terry O'Neill says that despite several requests to cut overgrown grass and prune trees since the start of the year, the authority only carried out the work this week.

He believes that could be too little too late after a Cheshire Community Pride Competition judge telephoned parish clerk Jeanette Hughes and informed her the village had lost marks because of the state of the building.

Cllr O'Neill, said last week: 'I'm very disappointed with the response from Cheshire County Council.

'It seems they have certainly ruined our chances of achieving anything.

'It's not like we haven't been asking for action to be taken on this building - we must have asked four or five times going back six months.

'They have responded promising to do something, but nothing happened until this week.

'The building was boarded up last year due to break-ins, which I can understand, but they have just let the grounds go to seed. The grass must have been two feet in height and fences were broken down.'

In an e-mail to the county's property service department, Mrs Hughes said: 'We are very disappointed with this outcome as Helsby Parish Council has worked extremely hard to get the village looking at its best.'

A Cheshire County Council spokesman said: 'We arranged to have the grounds of Sherwood Court tidied, including grass cutting and pruning trees, as soon as it was brought to our attention by Helsby Parish Council.'