Education hub delivered in North Copeland

North Copeland, a community in Cumbria, has benefitted from the completion of a £30M new state-of-the-art education and activity hub by the contractor company Wates Construction after being commissioned by the Cumbrian County Council with assistance from Sellafield Ltd.

Plans for Campus Whitehaven in North Copeland was detailed back in 2014, with the hub bringing together St Benedict’s Catholic High School and Mayfield School for Children with Special Educational Needs so as to benefit the young people of the local area while also creating a more skilled future workforce for the local economy.

Throughout the construction process, Wates pledged to used local subcontractors and suppliers and even spent a total of £7M employing them, while one of the benefactors, Sellafield Ltd, donated £10.6M to the project, covering over a third of its total cost.

The Cumbrian County Councillor, David Southward stated: “This is a wonderful moment to celebrate and I am delighted that we can finally see the realisation of what was once just an idea. There has been a huge amount of work by all the partners to get to this end point and it’s genuinely exciting to think about what this campus will do for local young people and the area as a whole.

An educational hub had become a necessity for the local area after other schools in North Copeland had fallen into a state of disrepair and required investment to provide new facilities.

The Headteacher from Mayfield School, Gillian Temple commented: “We are absolutely thrilled, it is an amazing learning space, better than we ever hoped. Plans started in 2014 and it is a dream to reality for me. It is totally accessible and the potential for two schools working together is wonderful.”

A representative from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Paul Vallance added: “Campus Whitehaven will provide an inspirational learning environment for young people and help them access the employment opportunities of the future.”

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