A NEW riverside venue and rooftop bar are set to be built as part of multi-million-pound work to transform the city’s racecourse.

Worcester City Council is preparing a £10 million bid to the government to extend the grandstand at Worcester Racecourse to make way for a new summer rooftop bar and restaurant and build a new riverside café and function room for weddings and parties.

The work, which forms part of a bid which is set to be put forward to the government for ‘levelling up’ money, also includes the ‘modernisation’ of the new ‘greener’ racecourse grandstand which would create a new facility capable of hosting large events, conferences and public celebrations all year round.

Improvements would also be made to the main racecourse entrance with the ground levelled to help during flooding and more toilets would be built.

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The racecourse part of the bid totals £9 million with Sports Arena putting forward half of the money.

The proposed £20 million bid by Worcester City Council also contains new and upgraded facilities at Nunnery Wood Sports Centre including a new sports hall and exercise studio, bigger gym and a new resurfaced running track.

Ten-million-pound work to transform the former Engine Works building in Shrub Hill Road into work and office space will also form part of the bid.

The council also plans to carry out work to create a bigger and improved Worcester Museum and Art Gallery in Foregate Street.

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Bids must be submitted to the Department for Levelling Up by July 6 with the results expected to be announced by ministers in the autumn.

The work at and around the racecourse looks set to come at the expense of a separate ‘Destination Diglis’ project which has not been included on a council shortlist.

Earlier this year, the council said it was planning to invest more than a million pounds to create better connections between the city centre and the River Severn in order to draw more people to stay.

A report commissioned by the council has found that Worcester is lagging far behind other cathedral cities such as Gloucester, Lincoln and Exeter when it comes to the number of visitors.

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