THE future of Upton Warren Outdoor Education Centre is looking more secure thanks to the support of a county business.

The centre, currently owned by Worcestershire County Council, is based around a 20 acre lake and offers a range of high quality water sports instruction in canoeing, kayaking, sailing, windsurfing and improvised rafting.

The remainder of the 40 acre site provides a number of land based activities such as climbing, a ropes course, high poles course, a tunnel complex, team building challenges, camping, archery and a nature reserve.

Following a rigorous selection process, Aztec Watersports Ltd has been successfully appointed as the new provider for the centre and negotiations are now under way with the aim of handing over management of the centre on Thursday, April 3, 2014.

Aztec Watersports is based in the village of Lower Moor, near Pershore.

Craig and Mark Spence, from Aztec Watersports, said: "We are delighted to be in the final stages of the transfer of Upton Warren Outdoor Education Centre to Aztec, this is a great result for the long term use of the centre. The Aztec vision is to maintain the current business model focusing on children and education services and existing site users, but with the addition of a wide variety of different packages and options both available to schools, the general public and other bodies."

Councillor Liz Eyre, Worcestershire County Council's cabinet member for children and families, added: "The handover of Upton Warren Outdoor Education Centre will see an important community asset transfer to an organisation which is well suited to manage, organise and provide for the future of this centre of sporting excellence to ensure it will benefit the local community and Worcestershire's children and young people for years to come."