Anglia Ruskin looking to revamp Chelmsford campus and build new student accommodation

Anglia Ruskin University has set out its major development plans - including updating student accommodation and expanding the medical school. However, the Chelmsford City Council has heard concerns about the lack of detail in the university’s master plan for upgrading the Riverside campus.

The university's masterplan—which sets out broad principles ahead of formal planning applications—includes enhancing the sports facilities by potentially doubling the amount of hall space, expanding the medical school, a new focus teaching research building to the south of the Marconi Building, a new front door to the campus by redesigning the public realm and civic space, and a complete re-design of the on-site residential accommodation.

The university vision for the main entrance space - dominated by the well-known blue ARU sign into a more pedestrian-friendly space - would require changes to junctions and the road running in front, the council heard. Indicative plans suggest the medical school opened in 2019 with 100 new places and could potentially double.

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ARU is also looking to upgrade and increase the quantity of existing student accommodation - described by the council as 'dated'. Planner Sally Rogers told the policy board on November 7 that one of the university's aspirations is to "very much update that student accommodation". She said it would be of a greater number and it would be better in quality.

She added: "The proposal is to improve and increase the student accommodation on the site so that would help in the longer term. What this document doesn't do is it doesn't provide specific time-scale or project programmes. That would be managed as part of a planning application."

However the council heard concerns over lack of specific detail - which he planning department said was due to the fluid nature of higher education in the UK generally. Councillor Graham Pooley said: “We're left with the uncertainty as to how student accommodation might be phased.

"We're left with uncertainties to whether the eventual amount of student accommodation is going to overcome the existing situation which is overspill into Rectory Lane, Rectory Road and all the rest of it and which takes up housing in multiple occupation elsewhere and overlaps with the need for nurses' accommodation.

"In one sense, this masterplan does not blow the university’s trumpet enough. We are very proud of the university but I'm not sure that somebody reading it would end up with a vision of how we would get to where they want to get us.”

Ms Rogers: "This is something that we also requested from Anglia Ruskin University, unfortunately they're just not able to do that. It is a very fast-changing environment, and they don't have that projection to say, 'well, in this year coming, we'll need X number of students, and in the following year, we need that number of students'."

The master plan is approved by the policy board to be signed off by the cabinet at a later date.