Derwent Demolition

VISION CAN exclusively reveal university plans to demolish the bulk of Derwent college and parts of Vanbrugh and Wentworth as part of a £400 million redevelopment scheme on Heslington West campus, aimed at making York one of the best campuses in the UK.

The university plans to retain student accommodation on the West campus as parts of the redevelopment process, but stand-alone accommodation blocks are likely to be demolished and replaced with new accommodation.

‘CLASP’ buildings, the concrete panelled buildings which make up the bulk of Derwent and Vanbrugh, are widely considered to be environmentally unfriendly. Nucleus buildings will be refurbished or demolished, depending on their condition.

Thomas Ron, YUSU’s Disabilities Officer “welcomes the redevelopment of Hes West.”

“Some areas are an embarrassment,” he told Vision. “This is an important area of the university; it needs to be refurbished and the fact that the uni is taking this in hand is important”

“However, the university must make sure they can implement these changes in a timely manner and that they do not cut corners, especially with accessibility, as that will disadvantage students and end up costing everyone more money.”

“However, if done properly, this could be a major improvement, as many areas of the older buildings are completely unaccessible.”

Fred Weld, first year Economics and Finance student, told Vision, “It’s one of the most ugly buildings I’ve ever seen in my life, but because it’s so grotty, that’s what makes it Derwent. I’ll be sad to see it go.”

Vanbrugh Chair, Joshua Treacy, gave Vision his mixed reaction to the development.

“I do hope that something will remain of the (perhaps misplaced) optimism of the late sixties/early seventies that is evident in the bizarre layout of the campus. Nonetheless, the Hes West architecture is in desperate need of modernisation.”

“The college-nucleus layout in Hes East seems to work well. It will be interesting to see if that is replicated.”

“My main hope is that there are plans for new ‘economy’ accommodation to take the place of the current cheap-and-cheerful CLASP halls.”

“What we don’t need is a University where you can’t find a room for less than £120 per week.”

“There should be less focus on producing shiny rooms for conference goers and more on offering better choice to the already strapped-for-cash student.”
“A bit of student consultation would not go amiss.”

Councillor for Heslington Ward, David Levene told Vision, “Given how much students are now paying for their degrees, it’s right that the University are looking to improve the quality of accommodation on offer. However, this is currently some of the cheapest accommodation on campus and the University should take care that living on campus remains affordable and that they are not pricing anyone out.”

The university also plans to build a new state-of-the-art teaching facility in the heart of the campus (near the Berwick Saul building) and the library will receive a further extension towards the end of the decade.