Ledbury has a new troubleshooter in the shape of town steward Richard Harris.

Mr Harris, 24, will become a familiar, uniformed figure in the streets of his home town, where his brief will range from litter-picking and weeding, through to checking on the public toilets, dealing with problems there himself or calling in the contractors for a quick response.

Ledbury has been picked by Herefordshire Council as the market town to launch the town steward pilot scheme.

Mr Harris, of Queensway, said: "It's a good job and it helps that I live here, because it feels like I am putting something back into the community."

Shirley Mackay, Herefordshire Council's support services manager, said that the advantage of the town steward was that he would be on site five days a week.

She said: "If the toilets have been cleaned at 8.30am and something happened at 10am, Richard can deal with it himself or evaluate the situation and call in contractors. He can deal with situations as they arise."

Mr Harris is an employee of the Herefordshire Council contractor Jarvis.