WORK TO START ON CITY CENTRE CAMPUS

Work is due to begin on a new multi-million pound university campus in Newport city centre. The £35million campus will be situated on the banks of the River Usk in the city centre, and will be the first phase of an intended £50 million development for University of Wales, Newport, with partnership funding from Newport City Council and Newport Unlimited.

The new campus will house Newport Business School and part of Newport School of Art, Media and Design. Newport’s Business School recently came top in the UK for its level of student satisfaction and the Newport School of Art, Media and Design enjoys an international reputation for its innovative courses and research. The Leader of the Council, Councillor Bob Bright, said: “We are continually working to attract new investment into the city and we are pleased to hear that work on this exciting development is due to begin. The city centre campus symbolises our ambition to ensure that Newport remains a fast-moving, dynamic, enterprising city, with excellent opportunities for people and business. I am sure that this development will be a huge success for the university, its students and the city of Newport itself.”

It is hoped that the campus will help transform the city centre by becoming a magnet for cultural activity along the riverfront and a centre for enterprise that embraces a contemporary arts centre, extensive exhibition space and a national photographic archive. Contractors HGB will be moving onto the site on the banks of the River Usk in Newport to conduct initial site clearing work in the coming weeks. The Riverfront car park closed on 13 January to make way for the new university campus development. Alternative parking is available in the Granville Street car park opposite, which has 350 car parking spaces making it larger than the current Riverside car park.