Imperial plans £1.5bn Science Park in beauty spot
College plans to convert the Wye campus, Kent, into the largest university research centre in the UK. However, as the £1.5bn biomass and biofuels research park is to be built in an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB), the plans have attracted considerable local opposition and correspondence released under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act casts doubt as to whether the park will ever see the light of day.
The most controversial aspect of the proposal is Imperial's plan to partially fund the project by selling some of the land for housing development. They refuse to specify the exact size of the development, however Peter Raine, the Chief Planning Officer for Kent County Council, revealed an idea of the scale of the project: "Wye Park is potentially the biggest development in Kent in the last twenty years after the channel tunnel rail link."
The news of this development together with last week's revelation that College plan to place portacabins on Queen's Lawn sit uncomfortably with Imperial's recent attempts to appear `green'. In an interview with Felix, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, the Deputy Rector, skirted this issue and stated that, "at this stage we have made no stipulation as to how much land we would require under the AONB". Conservationists warn that if the plan goes ahead it will not only irreparably damage part of this AONB, but also set a precedent for development in other AONBs.
College has stated that if the project is to go ahead, they need to generate funds in the region of £300-400m by selling off assets from the site. In 1995 the Wye campus was valued at £13.75m; however with planning permission for housing development, the site will be worth approximately a quarter of a million pounds per acre.
Imperial acquired the worldrenowned agricultural college in 2000 when the two institutions merged. Given the short time frame between the acquisition and these drastic proposals, some locals are questioning whether Imperial had a `grand plan' in mind when they first took over Wye. When Felix quizzed Sir Leszek on this point, he flatly denied the accusations: "Good golly, no. The acquisition of Wye was considered by the previous Rector [Lord Oxburgh], who bought it in good faith that we would be looking to continue a major agricultural presence at Wye".
He explained that since the "original signing [of the agreement to merger] in 1998, the bottom has fallen out of agricultural education. It has not just affected Imperial, there have been closures at every university...In some ways I wish that there had been some sort of grand plan that all this could have been worked to."
Whether or not the original acquisition of Wye was in good faith, it appears that Imperial had second thoughts pretty quickly. Documents released under FOI by the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE) reveal that they were concerned that Imperial was worried the Wye merger was a mistake and were considering restructuring or closing the campus. HEFCE officials were astounded at Imperial's backtracking especially as they helped fund the initial merger. A HEFCE official said, "I find [this] pretty astonishing, given that we have only just given them £2.5m to support the merger... if Imperial do decide to get out of Wye, there must be a real question about claiming our £2.5m back."
Local people have alleged that College set out to deliberately "run Wye College into the ground". Sir Borysiewicz dismissed these claims as "absolute rubbish". It is difficult to establish if this is the case, but there are some indications to support such allegations. For instance, student entry figures more than halved after Imperial's takeover. The Deputy Rector himself told us: "This was because the demand from students for agricultural sciences courses basically dried up. At one point we had 35 students on seven courses, almost more teaching and instruction staff than students." However, this drop in numbers could also be attributed to College increasing the same entry requirements, in 1998 the average A- level point score required was 15.4, in 2001 students needed 20 points (260 under the new system).
Mike Blatt, a leading professor working at Wye at the time of the merger told Felix "management blunders effectively lost Wye an entire year's intake of students. You might say the writing was on the wall. It certainly did not bode well for Wye, although I do not think that these events were deliberate or that there was any design to run the site at Wye down, at least not at that time."
The local community is incensed with the way College have handled the consultation process. One concerned resident said: "we are being railroaded into this. Imperial doesn't care what we've got to say, they are not addressing our questions." Sir Leszek replied that in fact "the consultation that is taking place with the local community is completely in advance of any statutory requirements".
The Deputy Rector has made some enemies within the community for patronising local people, at a public meeting in January he allegedly said, "let me put this in terms you might be able to understand". He defended himself to Felix saying that he had been speaking for two hours and those are "four words from a very long meeting". He refused to accept he was patronising, pressing the fact that the "local people have to be able to understand the nature of the development".
Some locals have alleged that the plans for Wye Park have been sewnup for some time as the plans have the initial approval of both the local and regional council. Imperial is quick to state the national and international importance of the research into biomass and biofuels. In fact, Sir Leszek told Felix: "This is a direction that both the United Nations and other major organizations are advocating, in fact we are in discussion with the United Nations to help support some of its activities." In face of the international importance of the project it seemed unlikely that local opposition could stop the plans. However, emails recently released by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, who would be required to give final approval indicate that Imperial have several hurdles still to cross. In one email an official said, "Not to deflate you before Christmas, but there are significant planning obstacles to this, ie it is in the AONB and they will be extremely difficult to overcome". Another email states: "Any major development in the AONB is contrary to national policy in PPS7 (Planning Policy Statement No.7). Neither does it sit very well with the proposals in the Greater Ashford Development Framework'.
Rupert Neate, Editor
Felix's View:
Whilst the development of this stateof-the-art Science Park will be of unquestionable benefit to Imperial, should it be allowed to go ahead at the expense of one of the UK's most treasured natural landscapes?
The park will dwarf similar research facilities at Oxford and Cambridge and thus allow Imperial to climb university league tables and hopefully challenge for the top spot.
However, is it worth sacrificing the beautiful Kent countryside for the possibility of Imperial's academic advancement? This is a very complex problem, which will undoubtedly give several government departments quite a headache.
Felix is behind this project in principle but the issue of building within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is worrisome. There are numerous brownfield sites throughout the country where this research centre could be built without detriment to the environment. It appears that the only reason Wye is the preferred site is because Imperial already owns the land and so does not have to fork out on a more suitable site.
This development should concern the nation as a whole, not just the local residents in Wye. If this proposal is passed, it is likely to stand as a precedent for developments in other AONBs.
Imperial should be totally frank and honest about its plans for Wye; the secrecy and duplicity that have cloaked this project have only created suspicion and mistrust. Whether or not Sir Leszek patronised the local community, they feel he did. The Deputy Rector should seriously consider the implications of the language he uses. Wye is quite clearly not some back-water hick village, but a highly educated environmentally aware community.
This scheme, together with last week's revelation that College plans to build on Queen's Lawn, casts serious doubt on Imperial's green aspirations.
If students here care about the environment, they need to make their voices heard by College management.
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