THE leader of Worcester City Council says the £100m Sherriff Street complex is a “real opportunity” to finally ease congestion woes.

Councillor Adrian Gregson says the £3.7m the developers will put towards roads and transport infrastructure provides a real chance to make changes for the better.

As your Worcester News revealed on Saturday, at least nine routes are being earmarked for alterations like wider junctions, cycle lanes, traffic signals or bus laybys as part of the development.

Coun Gregson said: “In principle, this is a really good development – a lot of other plans are in the pipeline and if this kickstarts interest in those, then great.

“Sherriff Street is very exciting because we are talking about jobs and investment, and a real chance to look at the infrastructure. The main thing people need to know about the traffic is that it’s an issue we know all about and are fully aware of.

“We can use this as an opportunity to help that.

“The scheme goes to show that there is a lot of interest in Worcester by developers.”

Last week the city council’s planning committee approved the development despite fears over traffic issues.

Because the complex is so vast work is being split into three phases, the first of which includes a 597-space multi-storey car park and main building of six levels containing 131 apartments.

The entire development includes 650 homes, a cinema, hotel, ice skating rink, bowling alley, cafes, takeaways, business units, a gym, restaurant, public open space and more.

About £1.7m will be put towards highways upgrades for phase one, and another £2m once phases two and three are constructed and people start to move in.

The final two phases have outline planning permission, which means one final application needs city council backing before work starts.

The project is now being sent to the Government for consent, and in the meantime talks are ongoing over infrastructure improvements.

It comes just weeks after proposals were revealed to sell the Cornmarket car park and Trinity House, in Trinity Street, for a retail and leisure complex.