WORCESTER is preparing to become a first-rate cathedral city and county town on a par with York and Oxford thanks to a bold bid for National Lottery cash.

Ambitious blueprints and drawings will be completed by January and submitted to the Big Lottery fund as part of a £25m grant bid to make the dream a reality.

The exciting plans link individual projects in the 'Worcester Renaissance' - such as the Diglis and Royal Worcester Porcelain developments and the second university campus, in Castle Street - to connect and revitalise the whole city.

The River Severn will be the major feature of the plan. It will include new bridges at the Diglis and near Gheluvelt Park and more boat moorings along the water.

There will also be more pedestrian paths in the city, with small parks sprinkled between the river and developments such as the university and library to enhance walks. A series of landscaping and new paving features would also link the Diglis area to the city centre, while the Cathedral roundabout will disappear altogether.

Head of community services at the city council, Alan Stuttard, said: "Worc-ester is divided by the river into east and west. We need more bridges.

"And, instead of creating major developments on their own, we are talking about the infrastructure that connects them all.

"We intend to make Worcester a top-rank cathedral city and these changes would lift us well above the middle rank we are now.

"The drawings have to be submitted for the lottery bid by January 6, and once we have the vision completed, it will be like having the picture on a jigsaw box - we know what we want to achieve and we will need to put the pieces together."

There are only five or six Living Landmarks grants - between £10m and £25m - awarded in the UK and the bid is a joint Worcester City and Worcestershire County Council initiative.

Applicants will be short-listed in May and those successful will be given £250,000 to develop their bid.

However, Mr Stuttard confirmed that the blueprint was drawn up could be used to access other funding in the future, if unsuccessful.

IT'S PART OF A TREMENDOUS TRANSFORMATION

CITY leader Stephen Inman believes the bold bid for Lottery cash will be part of a 'tremendous transformation' of Worcester over the next decade.

Councillor Inman told the city council's cabinet this week that Worcester needed to take a risk and put itself in line for the £25m windfall - adding that the city was up for the challenge.

"In the next 10 years, I think there will be a tremendous transformation," he said.

"The city and county council need to work hand in glove together and we are going to be bold in Worcester and say that we are going to make a bid and deserve to be considered.

"We think we are up to it and it would be an enormous feather in Worcester's cap.

"We've got to promote Worcester and get it up the divisions. It's got to be top rank - not in the second or third division like our football team.

"There are potentially some costs to the bid but there's a vein of gold there to be tapped. There's no guarantee of success but we are not a council who does nothing."

City and county council leaders will now sit down to discussion the bid in greater detail.

Worcester Royal Porcelain development

HOTELS, apartments and shops are all going to be built at the former Royal Worcester Porcelain sites in Severn Street and Portland Walk.

Still at the planning phase the proposals, which are initially for 426 flats, will create 200 jobs and also include an art gallery, museum, cafes, a pub, restaurants and offices.

Riverside Parks

THE Riverside Parks project has been set up to regenerate the riverside's walks and public areas, including Gheluvelt Park.

A bid for Heritage Lottery Funding could see a new children's paddling pool, a feature explaining the significance of the 1914 Battle of Gheluvelt, and new paths and footbridges alongside the Barbourne park.

UNIVERSITY OF WORCESTER'S SECOND CASTLE STREET CAMPUS

A £100m state-of-the-art second campus is due to be completed in 2008 - following the announcement this year that University College Worcester has full university status. The five-acre former Royal Infirmary site, in Castle Street, will be transformed, with a conference centre, lecture halls, accommodation, terraces and walkways all on site.

'SUPER LIBRARY' AND HISTORY CENTRE

A SUPER-library and history centre is due to open in 2009 along the Butts, in Worcester. The £50m scheme goes hand-in-hand with the expansion of Worcester University, and will see books and records from the city library, in Foregate Street, the Chamber of Commerce, Worcester College of Technology and the university.

DIGLIS DEVELOPMENT

PLANS for a 422-house and apartment development at the Diglis Basin have been approved and early work is under way.

Fish have been moved from the basin and standard behind-the-scenes planning work is continuing - for example deciding the type of bricks used - before the building work goes ahead.