Coleg Cambria opens £14m Wrexham health centre

Main contractor Wynne Construction has handed over the 46,200 sq ft educational facility, whose public-facing Iâl Spa opened for business today.

Work on the £14m Health and Wellbeing Centre at Coleg Cambria’s Yale campus started in March last year. Situated off Grove Park Road in Wrexham, the centre boasts three floors with simulated medical wards, VR environment rooms, a juice bar, a sauna, steam rooms, and commercial spa and treatment spaces.

The facility was designed by TACP Architects.

Having a campus building that includes practical spaces will help improve the educational experience of students, according to Vicky Edwards, vice principal of technical studies for Coleg Cambria.

“These are subjects which have traditionally been taught in the classroom, where learners never really got a true sense of a real-life, real-time spa environment,” she said.

“But now they will be dealing with customers in a setting comparable with any of the top spas and health and leisure suites in the region.”

The college’s hair and beauty commercial manager Sarah Edwards added: “We are absolutely thrilled with the building, it is the living, breathing embodiment of a modern, innovative yet welcoming, warm environment which will be a major asset to our health and therapies qualifications.

“The medical wards in particular are at the cutting edge of technology, using virtual reality to simulate a real hospital, and the situations staff and paramedics would experience in A&E or on the wards – something you can’t replicate in a textbook.”

In addition to Wynne Construction and TACP Architects, the project team included JP Structural Design and Evolution Arbtech. You can see the full planning application by searching reference number P/2021/0736 on Wrexham County Council’s planning portal.

The health centre is the second project Bodelwyddan-based Wynne Construction has worked on with Coleg Cambria – having also delivered its £21m revamp of the school’s Haford campus in 2021.