WORCESTER'S parks will come alive to the sound of music this summer as jazz and brass bands hit a high note.

Worcester City Council has organised a series of free outdoor performances by the best brass and jazz bands in the area, the first of which begins at Gheluvelt Park.

The season of outdoor concerts will run until September at either Gheluvelt Park, Cripplegate Park or by Quayhead Fountain.

Each concert will begin at 2.30pm with two sessions of about 50 minutes each and the programme has now been extended to include jazz bands as well as the brass bands which featured in last year's schedule.

Performers over the next four months include the Worcester Concert Brass Band, the Alcester Victoria Silver Band, the Celebration Reed and Brass Band and the New Washboard Syncopators.

Warwick Neale, green network officer with Worcester City Council, said he hoped the Bands in the Park season would build on the success of work to breath new life into the city's parks.

He said: "We have noticed now that people are bringing picnics to the park again rather than seeing them as somewhere to walk the dog. We're hopefully providing parks where there are things to do and see and nicer places to relax and enjoy." The city council has already submitted bids for lottery funding to help revive and improve the parks.

An application has been submitted as part of the "Parks for People" lottery funding for Gheluvelt Park and the council should know if it has secured £1m of funding by the new year.

The cash would help to pay for a War Memorial and an interactive water feature to improve the look of the park.

The council has also submitted a lottery bid for £1.2 million for Fort Royal Park off Wyld's Lane and hopes to submit bids in September for improvements to Cripplegate Park in New Road and King George's Field, Brickfields, Worcester.

The council has already been in talks with the Friends of Cripplegate Park and the management committee for King George's Field to see what improvements they would like to see.

The aim is to improve both parks as spaces for children to play with a view to securing a £100,000 lottery grant for each park.

Government cash has already been used to pay for improvements at Gheluvelt Park, including the planting of new trees, park furniture, footpaths and signs.