FOR more than 20 years, this column has regularly held out the hope that Worcester will one day make the most of its greatest natural asset - the River Severn.

We have, in the past few years, had our hopes raised and dashed as various schemes have been proposed and then dropped.

Now, we learn, the most recent - and most ambituous - plan is going to be "significantly downgraded".

The Heritage Lottery Fund has decreed that it will only cough up for those aspects of the plans that are "of historic and educational relevance".

The funds available are to drop from £6m to £1m.

This is a great shame, and we sincerely hope alternative sources of funding can be found.

One aspect of the proposed scheme that looks likely to be shelved is the improvements to the city's waterside parks - including Cripplegate.

"Unfortunately, although Cripplegate Park is a park we all love very much, the HLF does not see it as a priority," said the city council's cabinet member for tourism and riverside regeneration, Francis Lankester.

Given this statement, it is surprising, then, to see Coun Lankester's name associated with plans before the city council to extend Cripplegate Park's car park, to include an extra 76 spaces.

If it is a park "we all love very much", why would the council want to cover more of it in concrete?