University of Chester 'was reassured' over campus near refinery

Stanlow oil refinery is the second largest facility of its kind in the UK

A university at the centre of a safety row was given "assurances" that it could open a site near an oil refinery, an inquiry has heard.

The University of Chester is embroiled in a planning dispute amid warnings about the safety of its campus near Stanlow oil refinery.

It claims the council had offered "reassurance" in 2012 that planning consent for the site was not needed.

Cheshire West and Chester Council said "no such assurance was given".

The campus on Thornton Science Park, which opened in 2014, is home to the university's Faculty of Science & Engineering and houses about 600 students.

A planning inquiry is under way because the university failed to obtain retrospective planning permission to change the use of site, which was formerly a Shell research centre.

The university opened its Faculty of Science and Engineering in 2014

The Health and Safety Executive said it would expect half of the 600 students based at the campus to be killed if a "very large scale" accident developed. Others would face "serious harm".

The university argues it should not need planning consent to use the site for education, because Shell had previously used it for educational purposes. The council contests this.

Two letters written in 2012, submitted as evidence to the inquiry and seen by the BBC, show the council's former leader Mike Jones and its former chief executive Steve Robinson both expressed their "full support" for the university's proposal to buy the site.

In a letter written by Mr Jones to the university's vice chancellor Tim Wheeler last year, Mr Jones said: "The council's view of the planning position at the site was that the planning use did not need to be changed, because we knew that Shell had used it for research and education for many years".

However, the council's lawyer Martin Carter told the inquiry that neither Mr Jones' nor Mr Robinson's letters provided official advice.

He said the university had made no formal application to establish the planning status of the site before buying it in 2013.

Mr Carter said the university had been "reckless" in applying for a total of £28m of government grants for the campus without being able to demonstrate that their plans for the site complied with planning rules.

The inquiry continues.