Plans for teaching centre at Corsham estate site
4:00pm Thursday 21st March 2013 in Latest News By Adam Care
Bath Spa University is seeking permission to build a new postgraduate education centre on a dilapidated part of the Hartham Park Estate in Corsham.
A consultation tomorrow and on Saturday will give members of the public a chance to view the proposals, which could see 600 trainee teachers brought to the Corsham site.
A decision is expected by May and, if successful, work could be completed by spring 2014. Staff will be located at the new site from April, with students attending from September.
The university already has permission to redevelop farm outbuildings into office facilities, and has now applied to build the new educational site, which would replace the smaller facilities currently in place at Corsham Court; 600 students will be based at Hartham Park, but will not all be on site at the same time.
The centre would be used by the PGCE course at the university, and will work with local schools to support teacher training programmes.
Professor Christina Slade, vice-chancellor of Bath Spa University said: “The university already has a presence in Wiltshire through our Corsham Court campus and this move expands our already excellent postgraduate provision there.”
Peter Anstey, who chairs Corsham Town Council, said: “We obviously welcome any opportunity to improve the education on offer in Corsham, but we will have to view the plans when they become available, although I imagine lots of the councillors will want to go along to the consultation themselves as well.”
Hartham Park is already used as a business park, with more than 200 people working there across 44 companies.
Jeffrey Thomas, chairman of Hartham Park plc, said: “We already have full planning permission for the redevelopment of a collection of redundant farm and outbuildings and the PGCE centre is an ideal use for the area.”
Nearby residents and businesses can inspect the plans at Corsham Community Centre. The plans will be on display from 3pm-7.30pm tomorrow, and 10am-1pm on Saturday.
Feedback can also be submitted via harthampark@communitycomms.co.uk
