BUCKS Chilterns University College is dropping plans for a £120 million new High Wycombe campus on the CompAir site off Hughenden Avenue.

Instead, director Bryan Mogford will recommend to his board later this month that the university should remain on its present town centre site and expand there.

"It is better for the students to be next to the town centre and better for the town," he told the Free Press.

The change appears to end the long-running on-off saga about whether Tesco would buy the present university site and redevelop it with a new store, shops and homes.

Professor Mogford said it had proved impossible to reach agreement on terms with Tesco.

The delays added to costs, because buildings prices were rising by £4 million a year.

"We just cannot go on waiting. We have a viable alternative here," he said.

Professor Mogford, who said he was excited at the prospect of staying put, said the expansion would still go ahead. There was land available at the extremes of the campus which had not been available before.

The original plan had in any case been to rebuild the existing campus. "Then Tesco came along and the idea of developing a brand new campus at CompAir was very attractive," he said. "But we always had the option to develop this campus."

All that had now happened, he said, was that the university had reverted to its original plans.

He also wants to build a student village with accommodation for 1,000 students, including the existing 400 beds at Brook Street.

Professor Mogford hoped to see a start made on the redevelopment in 12 months. As well as an impressive new frontage, the university should also have a new name.

The university, which owns the CompAir site, will now sell it. It is designated for employment use. It also aims to sell three other sites at Wellesbourne, Chalfont and Cressex for housing. But getting planning permission for Chalfont and Wellesbourne will be contentious.