2nd March 2010

WEST DORSET: Call for a local university

by Tom Glover

BRIDPORT mayor, Councillor Martin Ray, has renewed appeals for a university in West Dorset.

Councillor Martin Ray raised the issue at a meeting of the Bridport Local Area Partnership last week after being presented with ‘A Vision for West Dorset in 2026,’ a community plan produced by the West Dorset Partnership.

The community plan is currently in a consultation phase and Councillor Ray is encouraging the people of West Dorset to support his plea for a university in West Dorset.

The draft plan does not include plans for a university, but during a previous consultation in 2007 town councillors proposed a ‘University of West Dorset’ based in Dorchester with campuses and skill training areas in surrounding towns.

Councillor Martin Ray said: “They asked us for our opinion once before and now they are asking us once again and they haven’t taken any notice of what we said last time.

“We thought perhaps have the University on Poundbury and have campuses in Bridport, Beaminster, Lyme Regis and Weymouth.

“It’s a clean job, it keeps young people in the area and brings other young people round here, giving a greater diversification of people. And the product is a good thing, an educated youngster, somebody with a degree in something or other.

“I am going to put it all in again and I encourage anybody going along to the consultation event to do the same.”

Councillor Maggie Ray added: “The nearest university to here would be Bournemouth which is not actually in the county anymore because they have become a separate authority so technically speaking the whole of Dorset doesn’t have a proper university.

“These projects that have a long lead up time, the best time to start planning them is in a recession because you know you can’t do anything for a while. But if you use that time to lay the groundwork down, then when there is a bit more money you say, ‘right, here we are, dust off the papers and run with it’.”

In March 2008 the Universities Secretary John Denham announced the ‘university challenge’ offering funding for 20 new university campuses in England serving 10,000 students to be built within six years.

Following this announcement the Dorset Universities Partnership was formed incorporating the University of West of England (UWE), Kingston Maurward College, Weymouth College and the Dorset County Council, who were joined by the NHS through Dorset PCT and the Army through the Bovington Garrison.

Their bid to the challenge was declined in December last year, highlighting a lack of latent or future demand as the key issue.

Lead officer with the DUP and Senior Inspector for DCC, Dr Andy Stillman, said: “For all our enthusiasm, the funding agency rejected our application and we are now addressing the issues they raised and continuing with our work on getting a university for Dorset.

“The potential gain for Dorset residents is enormous and we believe its well worth continuing to develop the argument and to strengthen our case.

“Half of the population of Dorset disappear at the age of 18 to go to university and they don’t come back, and the ones that stay don’t have easy access to higher education. We are hoping to address that.

“This may be five, 10 or even 15 years down the line but now we need to build our case and to keep pushing that very hard.”

The West Dorset Partnership who compiled the draft community plan are a partnership of public and private voluntary and community groups.

The district council support and administer the partnership.

West Dorset District Council community planning officer, Maria Clarke, said: “The need for a university hadn’t featured strongly in any of the other consultations which fed into the drafting of the community plan, nor was it raised by any of the West Dorset Partnership members, so was not specifically mentioned in the draft plan.

“The draft plan does make reference to this issue indirectly within the economic wellbeing section which highlights the aim ‘improve the skills base with better local training opportunities to meet local needs’.

“This section could be expanded to include suggestions of a university within West Dorset.

“We are keen to hear suggestions for amendments or additions through the consultation and so if it is felt that a greater emphasis for the need for a university should be given within the final plan this will be considered by the West Dorset Partnership.”

If you would like to have your say on the Draft community plan, the consultation is open until April 12th.

A consultation event will be held at the community information fair at the WI Hall, Bridport on Thursday, March 25th. For more details visit www.dorsetforyou.com/communityplan/west

WEST DORSET: Call for a local university

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