College Wins Consent for Redevelopment
In May 2024 Guildford Borough Council granted planning permission for a major redevelopment of Merrist Wood College and University Centre, a land-based college run by Activate Learning. The plans include a new glasshouse, teaching space with workshops, a café and a construction skills area, in two new buildings for arboriculture, countryside management, horticulture, landscaping, and equine and animal management.
Twenty-five existing buildings would be demolished, and student capacity would rise by 227 to 1,668. The project still depends on final Department for Education funding approval; the department identified the college as a potential beneficiary in 2021.
Activate Learning chief executive Gary Headland called consent a significant milestone while noting funding was not yet secured. Jo Manser, group director of its Land-based Faculty, said it would be the largest investment in the college's 81-year history.
