MORE than 400 jobs will be created in Worcester - with a new multi-million pound business park featuring a car showroom, pubs and restaurants getting the go-ahead.

Developers have struck a deal to rip up swathes of green fields mooted for years as a possible new home for Worcester City FC into a mixed-use employment site.

The move, on agricultural land off Nunnery Way, has been accepted by Worcester City Council despite anger from community leaders in Warndon and Whittington, who accused planners of making "u-turn after u-turn" on the land.

The St Modwen-owned site is the same patch of land earmarked for a new football ground before Worcester City FC pulled out December 2013 after directors said the club would be financially ruined by the deal.

In the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP), the land has only ever been designated for a stadium, with a limited use of 'enabling development' around it.

But the city council's planning committee agreed to back the new project due to the jobs bonanza.

The park will feature a series of businesses of various sizes, a car showroom and has permission for pubs and restaurants, with total floorspace of 17,900 square metres up for grabs for tenants.

It will be marketed for various business uses, with units available for what the owners call "light industrial use" and trade counters too.

The 400 jobs figure depends on the whole site being full.

Andrew Guy, from Whittington Parish Council, turned up at the meeting to say the land has been subject to "so many u-turns".

"Until Worcester City FC has successfully relocated into Worcester then logic demands this site is not approved for anything else in the meantime," he said.

"If the Perdiswell plan fails - and it is by no means certain to succeed - then this council would have reneged on its promise to the club to bring it home."

He also pointed to most of the fields being earmarked as a "significant gap" in the SWDP, saying the green buffer zone between the M5 and city is part of Worcester's rural charm.

The committee also had written representations from Warndon Parish Council on similar concerns, as well as traffic fears.

During the debate Simon Barnes, speaking for the developer, said the bid by St Modwen "reflects the change in the relocation of the football club".

He added that Worcester needs jobs, saying: "Without this site, eight hectares of employment land will have to be found elsewhere."

It was criticised by some committee members. with Councillor Andy Roberts saying "we've not got nothing we did want, and everything we didn't want", while Councillor Derek Prodger insisted it should remain as fields given the stadium bid collapse.

But Councillor Paul Denham said: "We've always known this council needs to provide more jobs but we've been fairly unsuccessful in that.

"This is ideal, it's by the motorway too which employers like."

Councillor Geoff Williams said the development still retains 40 per cent of the green corridor, adding: "This will create around 400 jobs, plus the construction roles, plus the associated supply jobs with it."

It was backed 9-2, with Councillor Roberts and Councillor Prodger going against.