A massive project has this week been unveiled, which if approved will see the West of Scotland have a brand new University, right here in Blantyre.

Planning permission was lodged and ALREADY granted in principle on 14th April 2016 for a sizeable area of greenfield at Sydes Brae, High Blantyre, between the current HSBC Building and the existing Crematorium. (Going up Sydes Brae on the left)

The huge development will see a large new Eco University Campus being built incorporating academic, specialist laboratory support, sports and office buildings. It will also mean new access roads coming in from Hamilton Technology Park and will have car parking, student accommodation blocks, several state of the art sports facilities, sports pitches including a hockey pitch, students’ union, retail units and extensive landscaping.

The site plan covers an area beside HSBC right up behind the Technology Park, all the way up to behind Westcraigs at the Crematorium. The buildings look rather large, and once again all documentation appears unfortunately to be calling the area Hamilton, despite a location very clearly in Blantyre’s boundaries.

However, there’s no doubt what this project would mean for Blantyre. There would be masses of construction jobs, not to mention all the clerical, janitorial, teaching, security jobs and we’re sure many other types of local jobs on offer. It has the potential for hundreds of new full time jobs on our doorstep and of course a place for this current generation of children to go on to further education, right on their doorstep without the inconvenience of travel or living away. Students and local youth may also be interested in having a new local weekend entertainment venue in the student union.

The proposed University documentation (named West of Scotland University) is now uploaded on to South Lanarkshire’s Planning portal and anybody who wants more information can check out all documentation by searching the portal for Planning Reference HM/16/0147.

There were mixed reactions on social media:

Elizabeth Dobson Grieve This is disgraceful! What happened to the consultation process with local people or do the council just do what they please? This is green belt land and should stay as such. Blazing angry at this 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

Marian Maguire What are our councillors doing as I’ve said before, get this identity issue sorted It’s BLANTYRE where many of the miners killed in the worst mining disaster lived. The council are content to wipe Blantyre off the map. This has to be stopped. Sadly the redevelopment will go ahead anyway, another part of our lovely green belt and wildlife destroyed.

Debbie McBroom And what about the residents of sydes brae, the distribution and losing the peaceful surroundings.

James Stirling you are having a laugh debbie peaceful surroundings , a hearse going by your window every hour or so

Lorna Banks I thought it was going to be the west of Scotland moving to Hamilton biz park ?
Billy Strachan Aye, the young team will love the student union. It will be much better having an indoor venue to be antisocial, rather than High Blantyre Main Street. 😂

Henry Hambley As a wee boy, I couldn’t have imagined a university in the place of pit Bing. Amazing.