IT seemed he had dropped this snippet of news into the final stages of his Swan relaunch speech almost as an afterthought. But once the immensity of Chris Jaeger’s announcement of his next big project – to create a new studio theatre for the Swan – started to sink in, then those present could see that this was indeed a plan of breathtaking audacity.

So. First he spearheads the drive to refurbish the main building, persuades the city council to give him £800,000 to finance a complete makeover... and before you can say curtains up, the citizens of Worcester and surrounding areas have a theatre of which they can be proud.

Most people would rest on their laurels after such an achievement, but not the chief executive of Worcester Live. For now he wants to up the stakes and raise the head-spinning sum of roughly £2½ million to transform the present rather cramped studio theatre into a state-of-the-art performance area.

This newspaper takes its collective hat off to him. For this is exactly the right recession-busting attitude that will lift this country out of the doldrums and back into prosperity. Yes, it will take many appeals, fund-raisers and assorted networking sessions to hit the target. But your Worcester News has every faith in him and will watch with interest as events unfold.