A huge new four-storey ‘health innovation’ building is to be built at Bury College.

The location was formerly the site of the Peel Health Centre which has been bought by Bury College.

The building, on Market Street and Angouleme Way, will contain the teaching areas for the delivery of health, social care, science, technology and engineering education.

The landmark building is to be completed by end of September, 2022 after planning permission was granted by the council this week.

Improvements will also be made to the area immediately surrounding site.

A design and access statement in support of the plans, said: “The location of the project on a site separate from the college’s day to day activities mitigates the impact of the project on the operation and services of Bury College.

“The ecological impact is reduced as the site is a ‘brown field’ site having been developed previously.

“The location create an area of open site that Bury College can use for further future expansion.”

The college has confirmed that the new building will create space for use for existing courses and allow new courses to be created

They will all be delivered by current staff members.

The report adds that because of its ‘health skills’ focus it will be able to produce professional workers for the NHS.

It said: “The building allows for a sustainable expansion of student numbers in courses where there is an increasing demand.

“While planned before Covid, the building is well timed to meet the increased demand for NHS staff resulting from the Covid pandemic, the project is therefore to deliver a ‘building for future health professionals’.”

The designs for the building were developed following collaboration with the staff, who were approached to add further detail to their

requirements through the completion of room data sheets, documents designed to record the requirements on a space by space basis.

The college said the design of the building was ‘highly energy efficient’ and met the expectations for façade performance following the Grenfell disaster.