Plans have been revealed to build a new £40 million Medical School for the University of Chester.

The 12,000 sq m facility will be developed as part of an extension to the University's Parkgate Road Campus.

Features will include new lecture theatres, laboratories, consulting and seminar rooms, a library/IT suite, offices, learning spaces and a common room. In addition, externally a tunnel will be built under the Sustrans cycleway for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists to and from the Parkgate Road Campus, while parking for 250 vehicles will also be provided. Further external features include landscaping with two lakes and a two-way entrance/exit off Parkgate Road.

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Professor Tim Wheeler, the University's Vice-Chancellor, said: "The NHS at a local and national level is a key part of the University of Chester's activities. The University is now being given a rare and privileged chance to join an elite of 32 higher education institutions with a medical school.

"This is a significant move for the University, but more importantly, it is a potentially life-changing development for the population of Cheshire, Wirral and Shropshire, three of the few areas of the UK that currently lack a medical school, ensuring a continuing supply of GPs and other highly trained physicians."

An outline planning application for the project will be submitted by the University of Chester to Cheshire West and Chester Council this Christmas.

If approved, construction work will start in spring 2019 with completion scheduled for June 2021.

(LM/MH)