Demolition for university expansion agreed

A stonemason's yard will be demolished as part of expansion work by the city’s university after plans were given the green light by the council.

The Stonemasons of Worcester and onetime hairdressers Sam Roberts Hair Design in Hylton Road will be knocked down to make way for the University of Worcester’s growing Severn Campus.

Stonemasons of Worcester will not be leaving the area and will be moving to a new yard in Bromyard Road.

The traditional stonemason, which builds memorials, fireplaces and hearths, kitchen worktops and carries out restorations and new builds, will move to the new location alongside its existing showroom in New Street.

Zoe Adams, who founded Stonemasons of Worcester with her husband Tom in 2010, said the memorial and kitchen departments would be running from the new Bromyard Road site from next week and would later be joined by the rest of the business.

“We will obviously let everyone know when we are fully operating from Bromyard Road.

“At the moment we’re running from all three sites, the phone number and email addresses will remain the same. Everything remains the same so if people want to go to one of the buildings, we are still there at the moment.

“We’re excited to move to our new premises, and we wish the university all the best in improving the area. It will be great all-round.”

The work will be carried out as part of plans to create a ‘health, wellbeing and inclusive sport centre’ to accompany the University Arena.

It will create new walking and cycling routes and green spaces throughout the campus as well as cycle storage for almost 300 bikes and 300 car parking spaces including 100 electric car charging points.

The planning application was submitted by the University of Worcester because the buildings sit within the city’s protected riverside conservation area.

The university is redeveloping its Severn Campus ahead of huge plans to build an international cricket centre on the site.

The wider campus work and the plan for the new cricket centre were both approved by Worcester City Council’s planning committee 18 months ago.