Worcester Street Redevelopment

Commentary by Councillor Marcus Hart, Leader of Wyre Forest District Council:

It's great to be here in Bromsgrove Street at the back of where the old Woolworths and Littlewoods were. It’s an exciting day, because the next phase of the Connectivity Project to open up this area of Kidderminster is commencing today.

Behind me will be the urban park and it will link up to Bromsgrove Street, because we've got a fantastic plan to regenerate this area of Kidderminster.

The plan is for the work to be completed and the park to open in spring 2025.

Commentary by Councillor Dan Morehead, Wyre Forest District Council’s Cabinet Member for Economic Regeneration:

It's really encouraging that we're here today, seeing the start of the development of the green space in the Town Centre. Critically, the main element of this project is to connect the Town Centre to the former Glades site, which is directly behind me. There's a live feasibility study for this site going on at the moment, and that will be the next phase of the regeneration of Kidderminster Town Centre.

Commentary by Stuart Mackenzie, Contracts Director at McPhillips (Wellington Ltd):

McPhillips are very proud to be part of this new scheme in Kidderminster, which will be offering design and build opportunities to improve the local area and its connectivity.

The overall scheme will be bringing a much needed open space and link to the main Town Centre.

Commentary by Councillor Dan Morehead, Wyre Forest District Council’s Cabinet Member for Economic Regeneration:

Good afternoon everyone. Here, behind you can see the work that we're doing to the Connectivity Project here in Kidderminster, and just really pleased I've been able to spend some time with Dan from McPhillips. He's been giving me a really good update on the progress that they're making on this key project for the town centre. As you can see behind me, we're now at the stage where the works are starting above the ground and I have to say that they're doing a really high-quality job for us here and we're currently on track to have this completed by December this year. Of course, from a wider economic regeneration of of Kidderminster, this piece of work is critical to open up the Lion Fields development which is to those who know the former Glade site whereas we've publicised, we're looking to build up to 150 high quality homes on that site. So this is a really key part of the regeneration of Kidderminster town centre, and we've now got the hoarding down just behind the camera, so anyone who wants to come down, you'll be able to see the progress that they're making now. So, I'll get Dan just to give a couple of words just about what we will see in those next few phases of this development. But yeah, I'm really pleased with what I've seen today. So, Dan, great work.

Commentary by Dan Redmond, McPhillips (Wellington) Limited:

Thank you. Next few phases now is this week the rock panelling has now been done to number 15 High Street. So, it's a big impact now as you come down Worcester Street you can now see that all the ugly grey has now been covered over by the new rock panelling. Behind us, the staircases have gone in. We're now starting to do the small dwarf walls. They're being installed as you go up. The rest of the retaining walls will start to go in after the back of those and then hopefully in the next few weeks you'll start seeing all the paving works to the front of Worcester Street because we put the new curb line in that'll all start to go in, and then slowly then phasing in all the landscaping works off the back of that as well. So yeah, all going well currently.

Commentary by Councillor Dan Morehead, Wyre Forest District Council’s Cabinet Member for Economic Regeneration:

Great stuff. Thanks for that Dan. I urge you all come down have a look. Great progress being made and we're going to see a real significance to the town centre and obviously this will enable us then as I said that Lion Fields development is a critical part of it and we continue to invest in Kidderminster and make it a great place for you. Thank you.