New cycle route revealed

The council has revealed a new walking and cycling route as the first part of its multi-million-pound transformation of the city’s Shrub Hill area.

The latest part of the work to be revealed is a new walking and cycling route through the heart of the Shrub Hill Industrial Estate between Shrub Hill railway station and St Martin’s Quarter.

With the ownership of some of the land up for question, council bosses say they will move to use ‘compulsory purchase orders’ – which would allow the city council to buy part of the land at the First Bus depot and Shrub Hill Retail Park without the consent of its owners – to build the new route if necessary.

The planned route would link St Martin’s Quarter in Pheasant Street by running between the bus depot and retail park through Cromwell Street and across the canal towards Shrub Hill station, instead of via Padmore Street towards Lowesmoor.

Worcester City Council and Worcestershire County Council are working on plans to improve Shrub Hill including a move to create a new ‘gateway’ plaza in front of the station which would eventually see the eyesore Elgar House knocked down.

Worcestershire County Council bought the 274,000 square-foot Shrub Hill Industrial Estate from housing developer St Modwen in 2021 and about a third of the industrial estate is empty.

Last year, councillors backed a £10 million plan which would see the former ageing NHS offices Isaac Maddox House in Shrub Hill Road become a new business hub.

Network Rail believes that the number of passengers using Shrub Hill will double in the next 20 years with more direct and faster routes between Worcester and London, Oxford, Thames Valley and Bristol.

The government has already given the city £10 million to redevelop the ‘lower’ part of the Shrub Hill area between Isaac Maddox House and the canal and the city council is still waiting to hear back from ministers on the result of a second ‘levelling up’ bid totalling £20 million which includes the redevelopment of the grade II listed Engine Works building in Shrub Hill Road.

Last summer, work finally started on the multi-million-pound Sheriff’s Gate project behind Shrub Hill station after years of delays – which includes hundreds of apartments, a new hotel, shops, restaurants and bars, offices and a multi-storey car park.

The city council’s place and economic development committee meets in the Guildhall on January 23, and if backed, the plans to move ahead with compulsory purchase orders would go to the key decision-making policy and resources committee in May.