FINISHING touches are being made to one of the largest new buildings in Winchester for decades.

The seven-storey University of Winchester halls of residence will welcome its first students at the start of the new term next month.

Education bosses say the 399-room facility will take 250 first-year students out of private accommodation in areas such as nearby Stanmore.

In recent years the suburb has been a flashpoint for disputes between residents and undergraduates over parking and late-night disturbances.

Paul Tubb, of Stanmore Action Group, said: “Every other house in Stanmore is occupied by students, and it’s ridiculous.

“I'm sure the new accommodation block will help, and we welcome the move.”

Justin Ridgment, director of campus and conference services, said: “It will make a massive difference to first-year students who would have been in Stanmore normally.

“It gives the students a better experience and we as a university can look after them better.

“We have had them in Stanmore in the past which is fine to a point, but we want to get them used to living on their own — they don’t understand how to live in the community at that stage.”

The developer Domain owns the site and the building and will lease it back to the university, which is responsible for its day-to-day management.

Mr Ridgment, asked if this arrangement was in the university’s best long-term interests, said: “Because we don’t get any funding for residences we would have to use cash reserves to build any accommodation, and that money is better put to teaching and learning.

“It wouldn’t have been cost-effective for us to do it this way — we could not afford to build the site and have it open in this amount of time.”

The Queen’s Road student village, on the west side of the university’s Sparkford Road campus, consists of seven, seven-storey blocks.

The site — which used to be owned by the Royal Hampshire County Hospital to house its nurses — is on a gradient, giving many students impressive views out over the city.

Standard rooms — which are around 12 sq metres — boast a bed, desk, wardrobe, ensuite bathroom and Internet access.The accommodation includes 28 larger rooms, which have double beds, larger desks and 10 sq metres of extra space.

The building is split into sections comprising six to eight rooms and a shared kitchen, which includes lockable cupboards, hob, oven, fridgefreezer and an eating area.

Mr Ridgment said undergraduates would pay £106pw over a 42-week annual contract for the standard rooms, compared with £97.30pw over 40 weeks at nearby West Downs student village.

There are no car-parking spaces for students on the site; only bike racks are available.

But not everyone has welcomed the new building. Alison Dudgeon, of Sparkford Area Residents’ Association (SARA), said the accommodation block did not meet conditions laid down at the planning approval stage.

She believes shutters should have been installed on one side of the building to prevent light pollution to residents of nearby Milnthorpe Lane.

“We have got this 400-bed monster and it’s been built wrong,” she said.

“It seems to me whatever the university wants it gets. I think it’s absolutely appalling, anyone else the council would take them on, but it’s a huge developer.

“I don’t feel planners have done right by the local residents — they have let the residents down.”

Winchester City Council had begun enforcement action over the shutters, but later came to an agreement with the developer.

A city council spokesman said: “Examples of the louvers were looked at along with the alternative suggestion of a film coating on the windows.

“It was decided that the latter was the most appropriate option for both residents and those living within the university accommodation.”

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