PLANS to pedestrianise Worcester's Cathedral Square are to be scrapped and the city's riverside enhancement scaled back in a devastating round of council cuts.

Worcester City Council has announced its ambitious £6.5m capital programme for the next five years will have to be cut due to a huge shortfall in its finances.

A whole raft of major investment projects are to be dropped, including the £330,000 plan to pedestrianise Cathedral Square launched last year, the £800,000 second phase of the riverside enhancement (from the main road bridge up to Sabrina Bridge), a scheme to further spruce up the High Street, and plans to invest extra cash into the Christmas Fayre.

Several key projects have escaped the cuts, however - the first phase of the riverside enhancement (from Diglis up to the road bridge) will still go ahead, as will plans to invest in homelessness schemes, refurbish children's play areas and improve car parks, lighting and bus shelters.

Conservative council leader Councillor Simon Geraghty said: "These are all projects we wanted to do, but the fact is in the current financial climate we simply cannot afford them. That's the bottom line.

"With regards to Cathedral Square, we are taking the view that should any enhancements be required in that area, the county council - as the authority in charge of highways - should take the lead. So we're not planning any spending on that area in the future.

He added: "We wanted to continue the riverside enhancement right up to the footbridge, but we just don't have the money at the moment. It was an aspiration but we have to look at the reality of our financial situation. But the £1m improvements from Diglis to the road bridge will make the city a much more attractive place."

The £3.5m shortfall in the council's savings has been caused by what Coun Geraghty called a "pincer movement" of two unexpected problems.

Firstly, the city's increasing lack of day-to-day cash has forced the leadership to conclude it can no longer afford to borrow the £3m it had previously planned to use for capital projects.

In addition, sales of Worcester's former council houses - the proceeds of which go straight into the city council's coffers - have slowed down over the past 12 months, meaning the city now expects to generate a lot less income in the coming years than it had previously forecast.

The city's new budget - which will be voted on by the full council next Tuesday - also reveals several other major capital schemes are under threat, including the refurbishment of Fort Royal Park and further investment in homelessness projects.

The council currently does not have the funds to pay for these schemes either, but hopes to pay for them in the coming years by selling off unwanted assets.