IT'S the sort of place Blue Peter presenters would have a high old time. All the bits of wood, sticky backed plastic and enough fabric roll ends to make a scale model of Buckingham Palace complete with curtains.

It's in Worcester too.

Worcestershire Resource Exchange is around the back of Gregory's Bank Industrial Estate and takes some finding, but seek it out and the craft world's your oyster. Or something like that.

It opened about two years ago with a wonderfully simple modus operandi. The exchange takes in or collects waste products and materials from a wide range of Worcestershire businesses and resells them, mainly for art and craft work to drama groups, schools, youth organisations etc.

Everything is laid out in the cavernous space of what was an old factory. You collect your trolley at reception, push it round and fill up.

There is paint, offcuts of card, carpet, foam rubber, plastic, bubblewrap, slabs of sound proofing material, old records, labels, rubber gloves, empty cable drums, lengths of plastic - if it's going to be thrown away and is 'child friendly', it's there.

The Exchange is part of a national network of similar centres and although it is open to the public, you have to pay an annual membership to join.

For individuals, it's £5, while group prices range from £16 to £22. Local authority schools are charged £30, private schools £50 and local scrap stores £100.

Pay the fee and you can fill up a trolley to the brim for just £8.

"In fact we encourage people to take as much as they can," said temporary co-ordinator Nigel Leach. "We make sure they get good value.

"Most people who come here will see something they can make use of. It's amazing what factories throw away. Packing material and wood are among the favourites, but ends of lines, sub-standard products and partly used stuff like paint also account for a lot of our intake.

"Currently, we've also got a load of rubber gloves, work trousers, paper cups and spacers they put between the plates at Worcester Royal Porcelain when they fire them."

The whole lot is an Aladdin's Cave of low-cost resources for creative projects and to give teachers and group leaders inspiration and ideas, the Exchange runs its own in-house arts workshops led by Sarah Millin.

Sarah has the upper storey of the building with plenty of space for groups to work and have fun and be creative with the materials downstairs. The legend of Blue Peter lives.

WRE is a project of the Duckworth Worcestershire Trust, operated with a group of partners including Worcester City Council, Worcestershire Social Services and Worcester Volunteer Centre.

So far it hasn't employed Valerie Singleton on the door, but hang on a minute, hasn't someone just produced a cardboard cut-out...