PLANS are being drawn up for a huge redevelopment of a York university campus after studies showed many of its buildings need to be replaced.

The University of York – which marks its 50th anniversary this year – said surveys have revealed much of its original Heslington West campus must be upgraded to meet modern student demands.

It carried out a condition check on its buildings last year and is now looking at producing a full redevelopment and improvement scheme, which will start this summer when some of the original and now mostly empty housing for university staff on Spring Lane is demolished and turned into open space.

The project would bring the site closer in line with the university’s £750 million Heslington East campus, where plans for a new 640-room student accommodation block were recently approved.

The future of Heslington West and its 1960s buildings has been included in City of York’s Council’s draft Local Plan, a development blueprint which also maps out building 22,000 new homes around the city by 2030 and will be discussed by the authority’s cabinet tonight.

“We undertook a condition survey in 2012 which confirmed the original ‘Clasp’ concrete buildings at Heslington West would require replacement or significant upgrade over the lifetime of the Local Plan,” said a university spokesman.

“Plans for this redevelopment are at an early stage, but will take into consideration academic need - including the aim of further enhancing the student experience on campus - potential disruption to ongoing academic activities and building condition.”

The Local Plan said older Heslington West buildings were nearing “the end of their useful life”, with bedrooms not meeting student needs and academic space being “constrained”.

It said redevelopment of the campus would be allowed as long as it does not become any more than 20 per cent larger than the current site. the height of new buildings is “appropriate to their surroundings”, student housing is kept at 3,586 beds and car-parking is pegged at 1,520 spaces, to “maintain the character” of Heslington West.

The university spokesman said it was considering whether to make representations on the Local Plan during a forthcoming consultation and hoped the document would reflect the “very significant contribution the university has made to the city’s economic development and worldwide status”.