An application to demolish the former Engineering building at Coleg Menai on Ffriddoedd Road in Bangor has been approved.
The building has been empty since January 2019, when the department transferred Grŵp Llandrillo Menai’s £13.6M centre of excellence for engineering in Llangefni, Anglesey. The single storey building is now considered to be in a poor state of repair and dangerous as the roof is of a fragile form of construction.
Grŵp Llandrillo Menai recently announced plans to relocate its remaining Bangor campus from the existing Ffriddoedd Road and Friars site to Parc Menai business park.
The existing buildings are deemed to be outdated and in need of drastic renovation and upgrading works. Urgent maintenance and works to bring it up to present standards would cost in the region of £13.6m.
The first buildings at the Ffriddoedd Road site opened in 1957, as the Caernarvonshire Technical College, attracting students from across the counties of Caernarvonshire & Anglesey. Extensions to the buildings were completed in 1969.
The College’s remit also expanded, taking in subjects such as pre-nursing, home economics and art alongside the more traditional core curriculum. More recently, the college amalgamated with Llangefni’s Coleg Pencraig, under the name of Coleg Menai. In 2012 Coleg Menai and Coleg Llandrillo Cymru (which included Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor) merged to create Grwp Llandrillo Menai.
Demolition work on the building can commence after 5 August 2019.
In their observations Bangor City Council had no objection to the demolition, but the Town Clerk was asked to make enquiries as to the future re-location of the iconic Mural on the side wall of the building.
