Plans to create an international inclusive cricket education centre in Worcester, as part of a wider health and wellbeing campus, have been given the go ahead by City planners.
Artists’ impression images of the International Inclusive Cricket and Education Centre. Credit: David Morley Architects
The University of Worcester will begin developing the centre, as well as infrastructure to support the wider Severn Campus alongside the river Severn, after Worcester City Council’s planning committee gave approval on Thursday.
Professor David Green CBE DL, the University Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive said: “The University of Worcester is proud to have created the UK’s first indoor sports venue specifically designed to include wheelchair athletes, in the University of Worcester Arena, which has been such a huge success. We are delighted to now build on our commitment to providing outstanding inclusive sport and education facilities, through the creation of the International Inclusive Cricket Education Centre. This wonderful facility will, I am sure, inspire generations to come as well as change perceptions on inclusion for the good while unleashing the potential cricket has to offer the whole community. We would particularly like to thank the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Worcestershire County Cricket Club and Board for their unstinting support.”
The Severn Campus for health and wellbeing will also include a state-of-the-art teaching facility for health students, which is already under construction on the site of the former Berrows House building. The building will be home to the University’s new Three Counties Medical School as well as students across a range of the University’s health courses.
The Severn Campus development has gained support from Worcestershire Local Enterprise (LEP), local businesses and Worcester’s MP Robin Walker, and has already attracted £2m in Government funding through the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) and £3m from Worcestershire Local Economic partnership’s green recovery package.
“The development of the Severn Campus will create an outstanding centre of excellence for health and wellbeing education,” said Professor Green. “The University is deeply committed to growing and developing the outstanding health workforce that our City and region so badly needs. We are very grateful to the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership and HM Government for their investment in this project and to all our partners for their support, particularly in the NHS, in the sporting and fitness communities as well as our partners and friends in the City and the wider region.”
The University of Worcester has been top 3 in the UK for Quality Education in all three years of the University Impact Rankings produced by the globally respected, higher education specialist THE magazine and is widely regarded as one of the Country’s most inclusive institutions.