University of Gloucestershire student village plan for Pittville

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UNIVERSITY chiefs have announced ambitious plans to transform the Pittville Campus into a student village with an extra 450 bedrooms.

Villa style residential blocks would be built on the site where disused classrooms stand, and a small retail unit and sports facilities are also planned.

There are already 214 bedrooms at the Pittville Campus – which has not been used for teaching since 2011 – but University of Gloucestershire bosses said additional accommodation was needed.

Vice Chancellor Stephen Marston said: "At present, the university is unable to guarantee accommodation to all its first-year students, a requirement that is clearly important to prospective students and their parents.

"Limited availability of accommodation at the Park and Pittville campuses has placed additional pressure on private rental accommodation in the St Paul's area of Cheltenham. Locating additional residential accommodation at Pittville campus would address this imbalance."

A university spokeswoman said an agreement to recruit more international students was another reason for increasing accommodation.

The proposals were unveiled to Pittville residents at a meeting yesterday afternoon ahead of an outline planning application being submitted to the borough council in October.

Doug Sollars, 75, who has lived opposite the university for 29 years, said: "There's nothing wrong with the plans at all, but my major complaint is that there will be 650 students and in that 650 there is going to be a rogue element which there has been ever since we have lived here.

Trouble

"It's that rogue element that causes the trouble and the university has never been able to do anything about it.

"With the new accommodation we would also have 45 bedrooms looking into our sitting room, which we're not happy about."

Resident Sue Walker, 60, added: "The existing buildings are very ugly so my initial reaction is that I'm pleased that there will be three individual blocks of accommodation rather than one big slab of building.

"The key things for me are that the trees are retained and the design of the buildings is good. I'm less concerned than I would have been if it was a big housing development."

The university had planned to sell the Pittville Campus to generate cash, but the money is no longer needed. Now, construction could begin in 2015.

The campus was the base of the university's Faculty of Media, Art and Communications until 2009. The faculty evolved from the Cheltenham School of Art, which was founded in 1852.

A spokeswoman added that once the site was completed a company would be hired to manage of the site, including providing security.

"She added: "We are, of course, very aware that the Pittville area is one of great beauty and architectural importance.

"Those living here are rightly proud of this environment and therefore any development has to be undertaken with care and sensitivity."

To allay potential fears about an increase in traffic, she said: "We do not allow our students to bring cars if they are living in university halls. We provide a subsidised bus service to enable our students to commute to our other teaching sites and the town centre."

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