MALVERN Hills District Council is to buy £200,000 of shares in Malvern Hills Science Park.

Helping boost council funds will be £153,600 of share dividends from the park's successful first two phases. The £200,000 of shares the council is now buying will go towards the phase three of the development.

The council was the principle financier in the park, investing more than £1 million after setting up a joint venture company with Worcestershire County Council and Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Training of Enterprise in 1998.

The park now has 180 employees in 16 businesses.

MHDC's executive committee approved the new investment at a meeting on Tuesday.

Council leader Tom Wells described the park as an extraordinary success story which places Malvern on the high-tech map in the West Midlands.

"The Council Tax payer gets the dividend back which we use to provide public services," he said.

In the future the council should receive £30,000 a year as a dividend from its total investment.