Worcester's £5 million Levelling-up plans revealed

Proposals for how Worcester City Council could spend £5 million of Levelling-Up funding for cultural projects in the city have been revealed.

The funding was announced by the Government in March as part of the Spring Budget, with the Council given a deadline of 10 May to submit its plans for how it wants to spend the money. The Government has said the funding needs to be invested in, "Projects that have significant potential to develop the creative and cultural sector or part of the creative cultural sector."

The Council has drawn up a list of proposed projects that could benefit from the Levelling-Up cash, which will be considered at a special meeting of the Policy and Resources Committee on Tuesday 23 April. The Committee will be asked to decide which of the proposed projects are included in the bid to the Government.

David Blake, Managing Director of the City Council, said: "Officers have worked closely with the Leaders and Deputy Leaders of all four political parties represented on the Council to draw up this list.

"The proposed projects are designed to build on previous successes in Worcester, support the aims of our cross-party City Plan, and to fit into three broad themes – education through heritage, community arts, and outdoor performance.

"The Policy and Resources Committee will meet next week to discuss these plans and then we should be in a position to act quickly to submit our proposal and meet the Government's deadline."

Under the conditions set by the Government, the £5 million funding needs to be spent on cultural projects by March 2026.

The proposals set out in the Policy and Resources Committee agenda are as follows.

Education through heritage

• City Art Gallery & Museum – £500,000 for the creation of a new Learning Centre, where school pupils, activity programmes and special interest groups can get hands-on with the museum's artefacts.
• Tudor House Museum - £298,000 for the creation of a new multi-functional education centre within the building.
• Battle of Worcester sculpture - £50,000 for a new national monument to a key battle of the English Civil War. The distinctive steel sculpture, by Ken Potts (who made the Elgar Statue in Worcester High Street) will be positioned in Sidbury.

Community arts

• Next-level food at the Corn Exchange - £1.6 million to strengthen the offer at the forthcoming Scala arts venue by bringing back into use two mezzanine floors at the adjoining Corn Exchange building, to create space for more events and exhibitions, alongside next-level catering facilities.
• Angel Place is your space - £233,000 to create a welcoming social space for young people in Angel Place next to and delivered by the Scala arts venue, with new outdoor furniture, planting and lighting.
• Scala co-working space - £350,000 to purchase 6 Angel Place for use as office and storage space for the Scala arts venue, providing an on-site co-working space for artistic companies to create work.
• Arts in the Arches - £200,000 for additional internal cladding at the refurbished arches in Cherry Tree walk, to secure the future of the community of artistic businesses based there.
• Music Box - £65,000 for a mobile music vehicle that will travel to schools, venues and events in Worcester.
• Community stage – £22,000 for a portable outdoor stage to support the growing number of community festivals in the city.
• Comer Gardens Institute extension - £40,000 to convert the building's upper floor into a space for dance tuition and rehearsal, and to boost community use of the whole venue.

Outdoor performance

• Music for everyone at Cripplegate and Gheluvelt Parks - £742,000 nvestment in two of the city's premier parks, to refurbish the grade II listed Gheluvelt Park bandstand and build new performance and family social spaces at Cripplegate Park, with new accessible toilets in both locations.
• Sustainable events at Pitchcroft - £900,000 investment at Worcester's largest open space to create a sustainable events venue with improved access, better security, and standing facilities including power and water. The existing limit on the number of events that can be held at the site would not change.