A BUSINESS owner wants to expand his cruises down Worcester's riverside - despite angry locals claiming it will "make a mockery" of the city.

Your Worcester News can reveal how a company has secured permission to place new moorings at South Quay, by the popular water fountains, to operate a successful cruise business from there.

Worcester River Cruises already operates at North Quay and wants to expand by offering pick-ups from the other side of the bridge, as well as leaving boats there and having disabled access for the first time.

Residents say the move will lead to more anti-social behaviour, cause friction with families enjoying the riverside and interrupt the city's most beautiful view.

But the firm says it does not focus on "booze cruises", often turns down requests to use its boats due to concerns about drunken antics and offers a range of packages like afternoon tea, weddings, corporate bashes, food-related bookings and even rotary club get-togethers.

The firm's expansion by erecting new moorings at South Quay was voted through during a Worcester City Council planning committee meeting.

One nearby resident, Harold Amos, who lives in The Merchants House flats at South Quay, said: "I appreciate the council has to help businesses but the view from the bridge, which is uninterrupted, is in my opinion the most beautiful in the city.

"Last year if had boats there during the floods, they would have ended up on the quay.

"Are we going to turn this view into a lagoon full of boats?"

Fellow resident Ian Jack said "pleasure cruises" would "make a mockery of the alcohol free zone" which exists at the riverside.

"We'll have stag dos, hen parties, it'll bring party-goers into a place which should be enjoyed by families," he said.

But Chris Winwood, who runs the business, said the existing North Quay business takes 8,000 passengers a year, many of whom tell him the boat trips are their "primary reason" for visiting the city.

He said the trips only operate April to October, and at other times the council wants the two boats due to be at South Quay to be kept at Diglis oil basin.

He said in 12 years experience, they'd "only ever had one or two" issues where people caused issues after leaving a boat, adding that customers have been turned away because they had concerns of it being "undesirable and unsafe".

"A lot of the trips are not 'booze cruises', we regularly do all kinds of things, they may be rotary club fundraisers, all sorts," he said.

They have one small boat and a larger one, which currently does around 100 trips a year from North Quay.

It was voted through unanimously after the committee was won over, with Councillor Roger Berry saying "it's a river, we've always had boats on it".