PLANS to revitalise several eyesore city centre buildings have been kicked about for a number of years but what are they and when will they be carried out?

The biggest shake-up of the city centre in recent months, which will see dozens of empty and decaying buildings brought back into use, are the multi-million-pound plans to spruce up Angel Place and the rest of the northern side of the city centre.

Long-term empty buildings such as the former Images nightclub in The Butts is due to be demolished and transformed into student housing and there are also plans to re-open the historic Gaumont Theatre as a new music venue.

Worcester City Council is looking to purchase key city centre properties Trinity House, the Scala Theatre and the former Panama Jacks restaurant in Angel Place as part of the £17.9 million Future High Street Fund money awarded to the city at the end of last year.

The city council has already bought the former Co-op supermarket in Angel Street which, it said, could be used for offices and a dining club. Plans to turn the building into a Victorian-style gin palace were rejected by the council in 2017 and it still remains empty.

The city council says, once purchased, Trinity House would become apartments. Worcestershire County Council sold the building in 2014 after moving its archive and archaeology department to the Hive two years earlier leaving it largely empty.

The city’s historic Scala Theatre is already set to be brought back into use as an arts venue alongside the neighbouring and grade II-listed Corn Exchange.

The council agreed terms over buying the historic Corn Exchange in Angel Street earlier this year and negotiations continue over the sale of the other buildings.

Thorneloe Development has permission to demolish the decaying former nightclub Images in the Butts with plans to build a seven-storey student accommodation building approved in 2019 after several changes and last year, Worcester-born actor Sam Barriscale revealed plans to bring the historic Gaumont Cinema in Foregate Street back to life as a music venue emulating its history when it hosted some of the biggest acts in the 1960s and 70s.

Mr Barriscale, who had been working for two years to transform the historic Scala Theatre in Angel Place into an arts cinema, turned his attention to the Gaumont after the Scala plans fell through.

The former art deco cinema played host to huge acts including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and Mott the Hoople but closed permanently in July last year when Buzz Bingo Club announced it would be shutting several venues due to the coronavirus pandemic and has been empty since.