Perhaps it's a bit early to start comparing Worcester to Venice, but something very exciting is gradually taking shape alongside the Faithful City's canals.

Anyone who has travelled more than a few hundred yards down Diglis Road recently will already have come across the amazing marina being built on the site of what was once the shabby old Diglis basin.

Unfortunately, to get to the new Diglis, the visitor has to pass a series of tired old office blocks that the city council itself has branded "unsightly".

But not for much longer.

These ugly buildings, which sit like rotten teeth alongside the shiny new structures going up around them, are due to be demolished to make way for 14 new houses and apartments.

By the time the work is finished by the end of the year, another link will be complete in the chain of new architecture being strung alongside the waterways that thread their way through this city.

Such schemes are transforming whole swathes of the city - and for the better. Grimy old industrial Worcester, full of history though it may be, has fulfilled its purpose, and in its place a smart new canalside quarter is going up.

But don't think this will just be a playground for yuppies, squeezing out the city's traditional inhabitants.

The city council has been careful to ensure that four of the latest 14 new homes are affordable'.

That means that all sorts of people will be able to live beside the water, breathing new life into a part of the city that has failed to fulfil its potential for far too long.