Posted: Tue 19th Jun 2018

Video: £60m University redevelopment plans launched – Land sell-offs to help raise funds, with Kop land being ‘secured’

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jun 19th, 2018

Wrexham Glyndwr University have today unveiled large scale plans for the future of its Wrexham campus – including redevelopments of the site and increasing the value of land owned by the university which will be sold off to help fund the campus works.

A public consultation has been launched that will be open for 28 days and residents and businesses are encouraged to share their views on the applications, which include the proposed sale of two pieces of land in Wrexham owned by the university in order to re-invest.

Speaking today, Professor Maria Hinfelaar, Vice-Chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University said: “The success of these planning applications is critical to the future of the university.

“We have worked closely with Wrexham County Borough Council as well as architects, surveyors, highways and environmental teams to develop these proposals. Our ambition is to be the learning gateway into Wrexham and to contribute more to our local community. To achieve this, we need to do more with the footprint that we have and future-proof our campuses.

“Students are at the centre of our strategy and we will enhance the student experience by providing an infrastructure that supports learning, with stimulating state-of-the-art facilities and the latest in building designs and technology.

“Our plans include a new engineering building that will support local business and gives our students access to modern, well-equipped workshops to prepare them for industry, new high quality student accommodation to attract a greater number of students to live and study in Wrexham and the redevelopment of Regent Street to further enhance its importance as an Art school of national standing whilst retaining a heritage building at the entrance to the town centre.”

The most striking public change will be the creation of a new ‘Learning Gateway Building’ on the Mold Road entrance, along with new ‘inner gateway’ entrance.  A new engineering building is proposed along with extension to the sports hall.

The University confirmed to us today that they will be acquiring the ‘Wrexham Village’ student flats, and will look to create a ‘Phase 2’ extension. Wrexham.com also queried the status of the land behind the Kop stand, and were told the University would be including that in the purchase.

The student accommodation to the north end of the campus will be replaced by new accommodation with the land sold off to a developer with the aim of providing around 400 ‘key worker apartments’.

The redevelopment of the campus will see new public realm areas created, with the aim of an ‘attractive green campus’ that is ‘pedestrian and cycle friendly’.

The University owns and operates the Art College on Regent Street, and is proposing of demolishing the ‘redundant outbuildings’ that are not listed and will create a 107 bed student accommodation facility. The listed Art College building itself will be subject to much needed refurbishment and repair, along with the introduction of a ‘publicly accessible space’.

Funding for the estimated £60 million worth of work is due to come from various sources, including the north east wales Growth Bid – but also the sell off of some of the land that the University owns.

Three sites up for disposal include the north end of the campus itself, a playing field on Holt Road and field on Gatewen Road. The University is placing the planning applications for each of these sites in at the same time as the campus developments, calling them ‘enabling’ developments. Land with outline planning approval for housing is worth considerably more than land without.

Earlier today Professor Maria Hinfelaar, the Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Wrexham Glyndwr University, and David Elcock the University’s Director of Finance ran through the plans – where we asked questions regarding the developments, the land sell off and the land behind the Racecourse Kop.

Our video of the presentation of plans this morning is below – when we ask about Holt Road engagement, the Kop land and funding ‘Plan B’.

The public consultation will be open for 28 days and residents and businesses are being encouraged to share their views on the applications, which include the proposed sale of two pieces of land in Wrexham owned by the university in order to re-invest.

The ‘portal’ site is live on the Glyndwr University website here.

Summaries of each application are available to view Monday – Friday between 10am and 4pm at Wrexham Glyndwr University.

Comments can be also emailed to [email protected]

Copies of the overview pages are below, and if you click they should become larger versions:



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