Brooklands College recovers from insolvency with scheme to save campus

Brooklands College, one of the highest profile victims of the Learning and Skills Council funding debacle, is aiming to carry out small scale redevelopment work under plans laid out by its new principal.

The Further Education College, one of 144 that was forced to put schemes on hold when the LSC overspent its budget, was made technically insolvent by the debacle. It had spent £11.5m on work when its £97m scheme was put on hold. The fallout included the resignation of the principal, Colin Staff, and an announcement that its Ashford campus – one of its two sites - would have to close.

Now, however, new principal Bill Grady has said that the Ashford campus will be saved, and has unveiled a series of plans to secure its future including a £1m redevelopment of the site. According to local press, the college is also considering a partnership allowing a supermarket chain to build a store on site in order to increase its funding stream. The college is still chasing future allocations of LSC funding.

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