Hope raised at Bircham Newton's NCC
FRESH housing and redevelopment plans have been unveiled by West Norfolk's National Construction College (NCC) as it continues its fight against closure.
The college, which has been at Bircham Newton for 40 years and employs around 700 people, has been facing the threat of closure ever since plans to raise cash for a flagship centre were foiled.
It wanted to sell land next to the campus for 250 new homes to be built on, in order to raise up to 20 million needed to replace dilapidated student accommodation and facilities.
The plan was thrown out after a lengthy planning inquiry ruled the scale of the development was not justified, and an appeal was also rejected.
Now the NCC has submitted proposals to build just 24 houses to part fund new redevelopment plans for a smaller, scaled-down college.
The new proposals come in the wake of positive negotiations with the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).
NCC is hoping the government body will be able to part fund the college redevelopment subject to a contribution from the college of around 4 million.
The new source of funding would be available through the LSC's new National Skills Academy for Construction, which was not available when the college submitted its first proposals more than two years ago.
Under the scaled-down development, the college would stay open to deal with specialist training such as heavy plant and tower crane skills.
Other training, such as light plant, scaffolding and roofing, would be delivered from other sites and colleges across the country.
Andy Walder, commercial manager for NCC, said the college would be making its official bid for funding to the LSC next week, and would find out if it was successful in October.
"If we don't get the funding we would have to look at our original options which moves towards closure," he said.
If the funding is secured, the college could still have to make redundancies when some of the training is moved elsewhere.
"Some reductions will have to be made but we are hopeful any redundancies will be kept to a minimum," said Mr Walder.
"At the moment it is difficult to say what will happen as first of all we have to see if the LSC will provide any funding and then what level of funding there will be. It's difficult to predict."
If West Norfolk Council approves the latest plans, the college hopes to sell the land south east of the B1155 to a housing developer for 1.5 million.
The college has already made 2.2 million of the money required by the LSC by selling Hyde Close, the existing residential area next to the college, and says it can claw back 600,000 in maintenance saving and college running costs.
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