Worthing colleges rebuild millions on hold

PLANS by Worthing and Northbrook colleges for multi-million pound redevelopments have been hit with a set-back '” but both principals are still confident building work will begin soon.
By The Newsroom
Published 30th Jan 2009, 09:12 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 00:55 BST

Worthing College and Northbrook College secured, in principle, a total of 80million worth of grants from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) towards ambitious plans to create two "21st century" colleges in the town.

But the LSC has announced it will be postponing any final decisions until March.

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The government has called in troubleshooter Sir Andrew Foster to tackle the delays being experienced by colleges and schools across the country awaiting their LSC grants.

September start

Peter Corrigan, principal of Worthing College in Bolsover Road, said: "We are still confident we will secure the funding for the scheme to go-ahead.

"Worthing College was planning to start building work in September, but it is hard to know if this will delay the time scale.

"But there was never an absolute time scale guaranteed as it all depends on planning permission.

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"Worthing College and Northbrook College have been working on these plans for two-and-a-half years and we feel we are in a good position as the projects will meet a lot of local needs and we have support from a wide range of organisations."

No surprises

Funding for the redevelopment of the Worthing College site and Northbook College's Broadwater campus was agreed in principle in October last year.

Click here to see the previous story and details of the Worthing College plans.

Click here to see more about the Northbrook plans.

The colleges are now working towards the "application in detail" stage and the final application of funds.

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A joint statement from Mr Corrigan and David Percival, the principal of Northbrook College, said: "It has always been the case that the funding body has adjusted its approach to approving bids for capital funding from time to time.

"We are, therefore, not surprised at the current pause in project approvals, and remain confident that our projects will progress to final approval within a reasonable timescale."

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