No Funding For College

MP for Beverley and Holderness Graham Stuart said he is saddened to hear East Riding College will not receive the funding promised by the Government for a new much needed campus in Beverley.

Last week the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) announced a shortlist of 13 colleges across the country which would receive capital funding for new buildings – East Riding College was not among them.

But while the news is bad, senior staff at the college, which wants to move to a new campus on Flemingate in Beverley, are not giving up hope of funding the project by other means.

Graham said: “Everyone at the college has worked tirelessly to try and secure funding from the LSC.

“The College put in a bid, received approval in principle, jumped through a number of hoops and then – thanks to the mismanagement of capital project funds at national level – was told it would not be getting the money it needed after all.

“I am upset by this news but, having spoken to the College, I am pleased that they are trying to see if they can fund the project in an alternative way. They are talking to the developers, who have been extremely helpful, and examining all the options.”

The LSC examined 180 submitted projects which were ready to proceed quickly and then applied the following criteria: the education and skills impact; contribution to local economic and regeneration priorities; co-dependency (for example, where there is significant leverage of third party funding or another important project that is dependent on the college project): the current condition of the estate; and value for money.

The 13 chosen colleges will all still be asked to make further cost savings to maximise borrowing, within prudent limits, and to examine other possible sources of funds.

Recently it was revealed that more than £5.7 billion had been promised by the Government to colleges across the nation, despite there being just £2.3 billion available to spend, up until 2011. This was the result of “mistakes” being made by the LSC in carrying out the FE Capital Programme.

John Doris, director of resources at East Riding College, said: “There is no doubt the developers want to go ahead and we are working with them.”

Stephen Hudson, director of Wykeland Group, one of the Flemingate developers, said: “We will continue to work closely with the college in the hope of finding a solution.”