Multi-million-pound plans to redevelop Chichester College and its Brinsbury campus have been dealt a devastating blow after the government announced it was axing funding.
The college had secured a major grant from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) which was going to be used towards ambitious plans to create a 21st-century college costing £135m.
But now the LSC has announced the college, along with many others,
would not be receiving the money after all.
A damning report into the body's finances concluded it was incompetent, had failed to keep a proper tally of the projects it was allowing and did not act on early warning signs of an overspend.
Despite the funding blow, there are hopes the plans are not completely scuppered. The college will try to find money from other sources to make the project a reality, although there will be a delay.
Earlier this year, the LSC announced it would be a postponing any final decisions for grants – but on Friday college principal Dr Richard Parker heard they would not be getting the funding to enable them to start building work.
Dr Parker said: "We are very disappointed our rebuilding plans, for our Chichester and Brinsbury campuses, will not receive any money from the LSC.
"Like all Further Education colleges we had been encouraged to create plans to redevelop our campuses for the 21st century and we were told this could be done in the next few years.
"We were delighted students would be able to benefit quickly from new facilities."
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