Cumbria university unveils £70m HQ plan
Last updated 01:01, Tuesday, 25 March 2008
THE University of Cumbria has unveiled plans for a £70m campus and headquarters in Viaduct Estate, Carlisle.
The huge investment has been hailed as a milestone in the city’s regeneration.
It will see the university pull out of its Paternoster Row and Brampton Road sites – the latter to be sold for housing.
Fusehill Street campus may also go for housing but is more likely to be kept on as a health or education faculty.
Work on the so-called “Caldew Riverside” campus in Viaduct Estate is to begin at the end of 2009 or early 2010.
The first students should move in by autumn 2011.
Peter Armer, the university’s director of resources, finance and estates, explained the thinking at a press conference in Carlisle this week.
He said: “This [Caldew Riverside campus] gives us a centre of gravity in the middle of Carlisle, links the campus to the historic core and makes it feel like a learning city.”
“Carlisle is probably the most important city within the portfolio of the University of Cumbria. It will be the HQ.
“Carlisle, I believe, has the opportunity to become a major learning city within the UK.”
Viaduct Estate is a 13-acre north-south strip between the West Coast Main Line railway and the River Caldew.
It has been earmarked for development in the city council’s Renaissance proposals.
Flood defence works will have to be carried out and contaminated land cleared before the university moves in.
Most of the land is owned by the council, which plans to relocate existing occupiers such as Eden Bridge Club, Cumbria Indoor Bowls and CTD Tiles.
But Tesco owns part of it and has planning consent for a 40,000sq ft supermarket.
The council hopes to persuade Tesco to “integrate” its store into the campus rather than build a single-storey stand-alone building.
The campus will include a students’ union and halls of residence.
There will be a footbridge across the Caldew to the library and resources building in Milbourne Street.
Riverside paths will provide a link to Bitts Park and Devonshire Walk car park.
Mr Armer said: “The river presents an opportunity to create cycle paths and walkways and have the riverside landscaped.”
The city council’s deputy leader, Conservative Ray Bloxham, said: “This is an absolutely marvellous opportunity for Carlisle. The city council will do everything we can to work with the university to make it happen.”
The university plans a performing arts space at the campus to replace Stanwix Arts Theatre at Brampton Road.
Mr Bloxham said the council would consider if this venue could serve as a public theatre and arts centre – one of the authority’s long-standing ambitions for Carlisle.
He added: “That’s certainly something we would be interested in pursuing.
“If we could work together to provide something for the city as well as the university.”
The university was formed last August by the merger of St Martin’s College, Cumbria Institute of the Arts and the Carlisle and Penrith campuses of the University of Central Lancashire.
Mr Armer said an early priority was to rationalise its 17 separate sites.
The former Cumbria Institute of the Arts site in Brampton Road was too constricted, he argued.
Although five acres in area, only three acres could be developed because the Roman Vallum crossed it.
He hinted that Fusehill Street would be retained although no final decision has been taken.
Mr Armer said: “We’ve invested in Fusehill Street approaching £10m in the Learning Gateway and sports hall. It is hard to walk away from that sort of investment.”
The university will also sell property in Newcastle Street and Shaddon Mill that will no longer be needed once the new campus is ready.
The Caldew Riverside Campus, Mr Armer said, would ensure that more of these students will be in Carlisle.
Mr Armer said that, until last Christmas, the university had been working on the assumption that its base would be next to Carlisle College.
He claimed that a phone call from the council’s Renaissance director Ian McNichol, “a few weeks ago”, had prompted the change to Viaduct Estate.
Mr Martlew, meanwhile, welcomed the change of heart over the HQ’s location.
He said: “This is tremendous news. I hope we are going to get high-quality architectural buildings.
“The Paternoster Row site [which is owned by the city council] could be incorporated into Tullie House Museum. And Stanwix Primary School could move to the Brampton Road site, which would give more space.”
