THE father of a teenager who plunged to his death in a disused Worcester pumping station has said plans to transform the building will help him avoid painful memories.

Speaking for the first time about the tragedy, Bryan Botfield, whose son Aidan died after falling through a hole in the dilapidated river Severn pumping station in Hylton Road, said plans to turn the building into a shop and office would help him avoid such memories when he drives past.

However, he stressed that the building had been somewhere friends could leave flowers and remember his son.

He said: "I had to go to Worcester and go past it about three weeks ago and I could see there was scaffolding on it. I thought they might be demolishing it. At least it won't be a reminder every time I go past - I try to avoid it, actually. Every time I've gone past, there has been lots of flowers."

Aidan, of Friar Street, Droitwich, died after a night out with friends at the former Bamboo nightclub in Tybridge Street on Thursday, January 16, 2003.

Friends told an inquest they were told he had fallen but did nothing because they thought it was a prank.

His body was recovered from a sewer about 15ft beneath the pumping station the following day by firefighters just an hour after a search was launched.

The pumping station measures seven metres by five metres and whenever the river floods it becomes inaccessible.

Work is under way to transform it into a ground-floor shop and a second-floor office with a balcony and glass pavilion overlooking the river.

Mr Botfield, aged 63, of Arundel Road, Bromsgrove, said at least the redevelopment should eliminate the chance of another tragedy.

"It was in such a terrible state - that's why it happened, really," he said.

Mr Botfield said he goes to the town's Tardebigge Church to remember his son.

A mountain ash tree has been planted at the church in Aidan's memory.

"We sprinkled some of his ashes round the tree and all of us go up there on his birthday," he said.

He paid tribute to Aidan, who lived between his mother Sonia's former home in Friar Street and Mr Botfield's house.

"He was a very bright lad," he said.

"He was very much liked and a typical, fun-loving 18-year-old lad."

Mr Botfield said that students at Worcester Sixth Form College, where Aidan studied information technology, collected money to put a memorial bench at the college.