A £400,000 scheme to make Worcester's Guildhall accessible to disabled people has received Government approval this week.

It will open up the ground floor and two upper floors of the Grade I listed building in line with the Disability Discrimination Act, without altering its appearance from the High Street.

Work is due to begin in late August with the installation of a lift, a disabled toilet and ramped access to the second floor Council Chamber.

The original oak staircase of the 1720 building will also be extended and some interior features will be refurbished.

But people with disabilities will still be unable to join sightseers visiting the basement cells where the city's felons used to be locked up. Plans to extend the lift down to the basement have been scrapped to avoid disturbing medieval remains below the building's foundations.

"Nevertheless, they are doing as much as we could dare to expect," said Ken Warnock, who became disabled in 1990 and is secretary of Worcester Access Group.

"We are delighted that we are going to get access at last. We have been moaning like blazes all these years," he said.

From February next year, elderly and disabled visitors will be able to enter the main hall through a new access at the rear of the building and there will be a lift at the northern end of the hall.

Four steps between the second floor Council Chamber and the Assembly Rooms, which house a privately-run restaurant, will be replaced with a ramp.

"Opening up the Guildhall to all has been our intention all along and Listed Building consent was given four years ago, but nobody quite envisaged the scale of the works or costs involved," said a City Council spokesman.

"That said, they are much-needed facilities for the disabled and elderly, but it's only the first step.

"We are still working on a vision for the Guildhall that may yet see it transformed into a heritage centre."

The work will be done by Stourport-based Thomas Vale Construction, under a partnering agreement with the City Council.