North East colleges miss out after budget blunder

Jun 27 2009 by Nicola Juncar, The Journal

WHITEHALL last night blocked £200m plans to rebuild North East colleges.

A budget blunder by the Learning and Skills Council left nearly 200 further education bases sweating on expansion plans.

And yesterday the Government announced only 13 of them would be given the money they had been promised before the LSC realised it did not have enough to pay the bill.

The decision left Northumberland and South Tyneside Colleges counting a £200m cost, with ambitious expansion plans now put on the back burner for at least two years.

Northumberland College has a £100m plan to build modern campuses in three locations.

Building work was due to start later this year on a £50m campus on the former Ashington Hospital site, which had secured regional LSC approval and outline planning permission.

South Tyneside has a £102m plan for new buildings on its South Shields and Hebburn sites, including specialist equipment for its popular marine department. Contractors had already been appointed.

Jim Bennett, principal and chief executive at South Tyneside College, said: “This news is deeply disappointing and is clearly not the decision we were hoping for.