A SCOTTISH university has drawn up controversial plans to relocate one of its campuses.
The University of the West of Scotland (UWS) is considering closing its Hamilton base and re-opening it on a motorway business park.
The move is one of three options being considered by UWS after some of the money it needed for a £53 million development on the current town centre site was put on hold by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).
The other options include a smaller redevelopment on the current site or a new building on a technology park on the outskirts of Hamilton.
However, the most controversial move would be a relocation to the Maxim Park site next to the Eurocentral business park 12 miles east of Glasgow on the M8.
Monica Lennon, Labour councillor for Hamilton, said: "It is disappointing that the funding allocation appears to have been rejected, but to move to a completely different site on a motorway doesn't make sense.
"It is not a sensible place for a university to be located. The university has strong links with the Hamilton community built up over many years and that would all be lost by moving to a business park on the M8.
"What the community wants to see is a modern building on the current site which is easily accessible to students from across the region. It would be devastating for Hamilton to lose this facility."
However, David Fagan, North Lanarkshire Council's regeneration convener said he would be happy to see the university relocate to Maxim Park.
He said: "We were delighted to be approached by the university authorities. To have a university campus within North Lanarkshire would be a tremendous feather in our cap and acknowledge the huge investment and progress in education, employment and skills we have made in recent years."
A university spokesman said officials had requested funding for a new building in Hamilton because of the limitations of the current campus infrastructure.
He said: "The university was proposing to fund up to 50 per cent of the cost of this development and was seeking support from the SFC for match funding.
"Unfortunately, funding was not available at that time and, as a result, the university is reconsidering the range of alternate options that will deliver the exceptional learning environment to serve today's students and future generations in Lanarkshire and beyond.
"Options include development on the existing campus location as well as options to develop off-site. All options are being fully appraised and no decision has been taken, nor is there a preferred option."
The spokesman said a "wide ranging" consultation would take place and a detailed options appraisal would be presented to the university’s governing Court by the end of the year.
A spokeswoman for the SFC said the bid had not been rejected, but was on hold hold pending the Scottish Government's October spending review.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel