A MINI adventure is coming to Worcester. Work has started on a new £3.5m car dealership, in Warndon, that will sell Minis, the tiny car that was re-launched in 2001 and has become an icon of the British 1960s retro-revolution.

The 20,778 sq yard site, between Berkeley Way and Wainwright Road, will be home to Robert Stern BMW, which is relocating from its premises in Four Pools, Evesham, having outgrown the site after 20 years.

The new site will comprise a BMW showroom, a Mini showroom and a valeting service area, and, when finished at the end of this year, will create 95 jobs.

But the project has not been without its hiccups and at one point it looked like planning permission might be refused, as the greenfield site is identified for employment purposes in the Local Plan and car showrooms do not fall within that definition.

But planning officers' recommendations were passed over by the full council when it met last August, and the project was approved.

"A car showroom doesn't fall within the definition of employment purposes because it isn't a general industrial premise, nor an office, nor a warehouse, so it's like a quasi-retail use," said Paul O'Connor, principal planning officer at Worcester City Council.

"So from our perspective, on the basis that you have got exceedingly limited employment sites, particularly greenfield sites, in Worcester, the officers and the planning committee felt it would be inappropriate to lose the site to a development use outside the allocation for the site.

"But the full council considered it and had a different opinion. They considered that there were sufficient jobs in the servicing and retail element of the business, and the car repairs, to justify the loss of an employment site to a car showroom, and so they approved it."

The new site will be situated close to Worcester's other luxury car dealerships, including Jaguar, Audi and Mercedes, and has been described by Robert Stern BMW as being "at the heart" of its market territory.

The construction is being carried out by Ashe, based in Rugby, Warwickshire, which this week started work on the foundations.