A NEW multi-million state-of-the-art hockey centre is set to be built in the city.

Land on the Old Porcelain Ground, off Droitwich Road, opposite Worcester Garden Centre has been earmarked to be transformed into a new hockey facility as a permanent home for Worcester Hockey Club.

The hockey centre would be a joint venture between RGS Worcester and Worcester Hockey Club, which boasts around 500 members.

It's set to cost around £2.5 million with an opening planned for September 2020.

The facility would boast two state-of-the-art international standard artificial pitches to serve dozens of the club’s teams, University of Worcester students, schools and the hundreds of youngsters that train every week.

The land is owned by Worcester City Council and would be leased jointly for 30 years to RGS Worcester and Worcester Hockey Club with agreements to make sure the facility is built.

The city council is not providing any money to build the centre.

The University of Worcester, whose pitches are currently used by Worcester Hockey Club but regularly flood and would need a major refurbishment within the next two years, has already expressed an interest in using the new facility regularly.

Hockey pitches at Nunnery Wood would also need to be resurfaced in the next two years to bring them up to a national standard and moving to the new hockey facility would also free up space for the already over-subscribed football pitches.

The international standard pitches would allow Worcester to rival other university cities - including Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Durham - who make up a significant part of England Hockey’s National League.

It would also provide a potential venue for countries to train at during the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.

Part of the land opposite the garden centre was part of a plan approved in 1991 which would allow for the expansion of the garden centre and its car park.

In the original plan, the land on the opposite site of the road could not be sold separately to the rest of the garden centre site.

The council’s planning committee approved a plan to take out that part of the land separately so its purchase and development could go ahead.

The council’s policy and resources committee approved the purchase of the land in June 2018 dependant on the planning committee’s decision.

The council’s policy and resources committee meets on Tuesday (June 4) to make a decision.