A RIVERSIDE pumping station is in the middle of a stand-off between its owner and the council.

The derelict pumping station, opposite McDonald’s in Hylton Road, has been a contentious subject between developers and Worcester City Council’s planning officers for more than 20 years.

Now, the council would like to see it demolished, while the developer plans to continue fighting for the right to turn it into a useable property.

The building – which was the scene of a tragedy in January 2003 when 18-year-old Aidan Botfield fell through the roof and drowned – has been the subject of at least four planning applications since 1990.

Of the four applications, only one was successful. In 2002, permission was granted to convert the derelict pump house into a shop and offices.

The news was welcomed by Aidan’s father – as reported in your Worcester News – who felt the building stood as a grim reminder to his son’s tragic accident.

But building work was stopped not long after, when the council questioned the building materials being used, and has not resumed since. Further planning permission was refused on the grounds of the building being in a ‘red’ flood zone on the banks of the river Severn, which makes it likely to flood.

Paul O’Connor, head of planning at Worcester City Council, said: “The building is not the subject of any approval and has no authorised use.

“It is in the red zone of the river Severn flood plain where the presumption is for the building to be demolished and the site returned to the operational flood plain.”

But Landscure, which owns the pumping station and surrounding land, told your Worcester News they intended to keep fighting for the right to develop the property.

Adrian Thompson, of Adrian Thompson Design Practice, Worcester, who designed the approved building in 2002, thinks this is a weak explanation.

He said: “The council has changed their position [since 2002] but the river hasn’t changed its position.

“They have allowed houses to be built in the red zone before. An office is less dangerous [in terms of likely damage].” A spokesman for Landscure said the firm may rethink its proposals, if it would allow development of the site.

“It may serve as a good recreation centre for canoeing and boating. It lends itself for that, if the authorities thought it would be a good idea.”

Meanwhile Worcester News reader Alan Coldicott, aged 67, of Redhill, Worcester, suggested the pumping station be turned into the site of a new memorial to all those who have died in tragic circumstances, using the existing building as a plinth. He said: “It is a shame about it not being put to better use and I think it is an ideal location. People coming from the three directions of the city would all be able to see it.”

But for now, the delapidated building will continue to stand empty.