AS we reveal today, West Cheshire College intends to spend £70m on upgrading its Ellesmere Port campus.
We’ve had a look at the plans and they are very impressive.
The campus, which will expand to cover 19,000 square metres, will boast new classrooms, a spa, bistro, health clinic, cyber centre and virtual reality area.
But probably the most outstanding feature – quite literally – will be a four-floor rotunda which would become a real landmark in a town centre which, frankly, doesn’t have too many buildings of distinction.
The news of this major expansion, which will make Ellesmere Port the college’s main site, is excellent news for this area.
And it will go a long way to reversing the trend of recent years for facilities to be be taken away from the town and drawn towards Chester.
The development, which is still subject to planning approval by the borough council, should be of real and lasting value.
For it is not simply a private business which is of limited to benefit to the area as a whole.
This will be of lasting benefit as it is an educational establishment which will help to make the citizens of tomorrow better educated and more thoroughly prepared to meet the challenges of an increasingly demanding and hi-tech world.
College principal Sara Mogel describes the blueprint as a “once in a lifetime investment for the site and the town.”
And she adds: “This is a scheme for everyone and we will be enhancing people’s experiences by giving them services they won’t have had access to before.”
She is quite right and we trust that when the application comes before borough planners it is given favourable consideration.
