A NEW £100,000 'master plan' is going to be created for Worcester to try and encourage more private and public sector investment, it has emerged.

Worcester City Council says it wants to refresh a 2011 blueprint which is credited with helping to pump tens of millions into the economy.

The existing 'City Centre Master Plan' aims to market Worcester to outside investors and keep politicians focused on the big picture, spanning 98 pages.

It focuses on sites like the core city centre streets, Shrub Hill, the environment around Worcester Cathedral and Sidbury but is increasingly being considered out-of-date.

With years of record investments into the riverside, city centre resurfacing and the ongoing £20 million Cathedral Square development city leaders are anxious to keep up the momentum by refreshing the dossier.

It comes at a time when a huge regeneration project on industrial land off Sherriff Street is running two years late, and with questions marks around the viability of a £12 million 'Green Skywalk' project, a 1,000 metre-long raised walkway.

A £11 million redevelopment of the old Royal Worcester Porcelain site was also watered down to £3 million, after the more ambitious overhaul was deemed unaffordable.

The refreshed master plan will involve work with outside consultants, and is expected to be complete by March 2018.

It will include a detailed investigation into what the council calls "key opportunity areas" for new investment, as well as an assessment on the state of play with public transport and congestion.

It will also delve into what sort of urban design Worcester should expect to have in the future, what sites the council wants to see redeveloped and how it expects funding to be found.

Some £75,000 of funding will come from the city council, with the remaining £25,000 from Worcestershire's Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

Labour Councillor Adrian Gregson, the city council's leader, said: "This is pretty fundamental on what we're trying to do, which is move the city forward.

"We've been trying to grasp hold of it for some considerable time."

Councillor Geoff Williams, cabinet member for economic prosperity and growth, added: "You might consider that this work could be done in-house, but we don't have the resources to do it within the timescale, nor the technical capacity."

The refreshed document will tie-in with a county council blueprint for transport in Worcestershire, which is currently undergoing its fourth review.