ED Balls visited Worcester today - saying a Labour Government would be prepared to "listen" over stumping up the cash for a £70 million dualling of Carrington Bridge.

The Shadow Chancellor breathed serious momentum into the party's General Election campaign, hailing the city's importance for May 7 by saying voters have a "key vote" in deciding who gets the keys to Downing Street.

The heavyweight politician toured the Coomber HQ, a flourishing electronic equipment firm in Warndon and during a light-hearted walk around happily chatted with shop floor workers while trying out the products this afternoon.

He said the A4440 Carrington Bridge dualling campaign in south Worcester, which local decision makers are lobbying hard to try and secure funds for, is something he'd have "a receptive ear" to.

"We've got a long term plan to improve our infrastructure and everything the Government has committed to now will carry on," he said.

"On the next phase, we will listen to what local people say, if I get in I'll be listening to what Joy (Squires, Worcester's Labour parliamentary candidate) is telling me and I'll be a receptive ear."

He said he had to be "very careful" on not making specific promises, but insisted the decision should be made locally.

"It's not the Treasury in London which has the expertise, we want to hand matters like this to local communities," he said.

"If that (the Carrington Bridge) is the priority for local people in Worcester that's what we would do, but local people must decide, if people want that it'll happen."

He also hit out at the closure of Worcester's Farrier Street walk-in centre, saying Cllr Squires' campaign was one he backed.

"Joy wanted to save it, that's not happened and all that does is put pressure on GPs and hospitals," he said.

He also said the Worcester parliamentary seat, which Conservative Robin Walker holds with a 2,982 majority, is vital to his party.

"This is a really, really important constituency, the General Election is decided in seats like Worcester, Halesowen - these are places which can change and the Government changes with it," he said.

"I want Joy to be the MP because that'd mean we're getting a majority, I want Worcester men and women to vote Labour in three weeks time."

He also told your Worcester News it would be "a challenge" to win an overall majority in May, but insisted the Labour manifesto had plans "that add up".

"We will deal with the deficit in a fair and measured way and not do what David Cameron is doing, which is to cut faster and further than you need," he said.

Worcestershire County Council is spending more than £40 million of taxpayers cash overhauling the rest of the A4440 Southern Link Road, dualling it in a huge scheme due for completion by mid-2018, but not the Carrington Bridge due to its huge costs.

Coomber, based in a new state-of-the-art base in Brindley Road, only employs around 20 people but gets business from around the world.

It sells equipment like speakers to schools and village halls and underwater amplifiers to swimming pools, and was first established in the early 1900s.

Some of its products include audio equipment for lifts, of which two are used by the Queen and another, by London store Harrods.