Concerns raised over ‘secrecy’ of Lampeter campus proposals

Bruce Sinclair, Local democracy reporter

Nearly 30 different suggestions for the future use of Lampeter’s university campus have been made after the decision to end undergraduate teaching in the town, but concerns have been raised about the ‘secrecy’ of what exactly is being proposed.

Graduates have issued a plea to reveal what proposals have been mooted after it emerged that 26 suggestions have already been made on what should happen to the Lampeter campus after all university teaching is controversially axed this summer.

University of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD), which is transferring courses to its Carmarthen campus, has asked people to come up with alternative uses for the campus.

Opposition

The Lampeter Society, an alumni group which opposed the loss of university education after 200 years in the town, has submitted one of the proposals but says it would also like sufficient time for it and other stakeholders to assess the other schemes.

Society chair Andrew Leach says the number of submissions attests to ‘an impressive level of engagement from a wide variety of stakeholders who genuinely have the future of Lampeter at heart.’

However, he claims the university is imposing an ‘unwarranted’ level of secrecy over details of the 26 proposals, making it difficult for the society and other stakeholders to scrutinise them, saying they will not have any sight of proposals until they attend a meeting following a May 19 deadline for submissions.

“Such an approach is disrespectful both to the proposers, who have gone to considerable effort to submit draft plans, and to non UWTSD members of the working group who need sufficient time to review and consider proposals and consult with those they represent,” he said.

“If this process is to be anything other than a token gesture to placate elected representatives and/or a sop to the local community, then wider stakeholders must be allowed sufficient time to interrogate the proposals and comment reflectively on them.”

He has asked the submitted proposals be available in a secure format if needed for stakeholder representatives to scrutinise.

Updates

A spokesperson for UWTSD said: “The process for the consideration of proposals was discussed and agreed by members at the key stakeholder meeting, which took place at the end of March. All proposals will be provided to the group at the first meeting after the submission closing date of May 19.

“This allows for any updates to submissions based on additional information that has been requested from us, and avoids discouraging others who have yet to submit, and enables the key stakeholders to take a holistic view of all the proposals.

“To date we have received 26 submissions via the online proposal form. It is not possible to estimate how many are yet to be received, and it may be necessary for several meetings to take place so that the group has sufficient time to consider them.”