Seddon has broken ground on a £23m project at Keele University.

Above: Seddon is expaning Keele’s Barnes Hall

The project is in two parts. Firstly, Seddon will build new student accommodation on campus; then it will take over an old hall of residence off campus and redevelop it for private housing.

The first phase of the project sees Seddon building two new accommodation blocks at Barnes hall of residence at the centre of the university’s 600 acre campus. There will be 453 en-suite bedrooms built across the two blocks, with the facility ready for Christmas 2017.

This project got underway with turf cutting on 10th August 2016.

Once this is complete, Seddon will redevelop the former Hawthorns hall of residence in Keele village, with the redundant site making way for 83 new homes for sale.

Managing director Jonathan Seddon said: “This major project builds on what has already been a good year for Seddon in the Midlands and, more importantly, on work we have delivered for our long-standing partner Keele University over many years.

“As a local, family business, it’s important that we spend as much as we can in the surrounding area, so the more materials, labour and subcontractor packages we can source locally the better. Not only is it good common sense, but it’s reinvesting the university’s money into the local community.”

This is just the latest in a series of projects Seddon has worked on with Keele University. The contractor is due to complete IC5, a £5.3m industrial and office building, later this year as part of the university’s Science & Innovation Park improvements. Seddon has built the shell and core of the IC5 building, along with three separate wings and associated external hard and soft landscaping.

In 2012, Seddon completed a £1m project to extend a lecture theatre and provide a new lecture room for the Darwin Management School. Prior to this, the firm was involved in a £1.5m refurbishment project to upgrade the earth and space observatory.