03/29/2024

Wales News Online

Local & National News for Wales

Image of how the redeveloped Townhill campus would look

£20m residential scheme in Townhill due to start this autumn

WORK on a £20 million-plus residential scheme at a former university campus overlooking Swansea Bay is due to get underway this autumn.

Social housing provider Pobl Group has planning permission to build 84 houses at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) Townhill campus.

In addition, the Edwardian college building dating back to 1912 will be extended and converted into 62 flats. Other buildings will be demolished.

Most of the 84 houses will be on the Pantycelyn Road side of the college building; the remainder on the southern side will face onto sloping parkland.

Pobl Group also has outline consent for a further 14 flats and a commercial unit and said it would submit a full application later this year.

Uplands councillor Peter May said a couple of residents had asked him recently when work would start.

“I’m glad a date has been set and that work will progress,” said Cllr May.

“It’s a project that was welcomed by neighbouring residents with all the planning conditions that were put in.”

The wooded parkland running down towards Uplands, which includes old tennis courts, will not be developed although a path leading up from Penlan Crescent will be reinstated.

As part of the planning permission, Pobl Group will make a £140,000 highways, cycling and walking contribution and provide 20% affordable housing.

After demolition work, it’s likely that construction will begin first on the houses on the Pantycelyn Road side of the college building.

An old caretaker’s lodge, which has been vandalised in recent years, is among the buildings which will be knocked down.

UWTSD’s staff and students relocated from Townhill to their new campus in SA1 for the start of the 2018-19 academic year.

Speaking in 2018, a Pobl Group spokesman said it wanted the scheme to make the most of the views over Swansea Bay.

He added: “We also want to conserve and maintain a large proportion of mature parkland and open space to benefit both the new residents and adjacent community.”

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