Sandwell College still on course for new campus in West Bromwich

Mar 10 2009 by Tony Collins, Birmingham Post

Sandwell College remains confident that plans for a new £85million campus in West Bromwich will not be hit by national delays in approval for capital funding projects.

The Learning and Skills Council previously deferred a decision on a number of college schemes, which were due for approval last December, because of a rapid growth in new projects.

The LSC’s capital committee has now decided to give the go-ahead to eight schemes, including Solihull College and Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College. A number of other major projects, including Sandwell and Sutton Coldfield College’s planned Riverside campus in Perry Barr, have again been deferred while the LSC element of their funding remains under review.

Mike Bell, area director of Black Country LSC, said that, nationally, there were concerns that the ability of colleges to raise their own funds for proposed projects was being affected by the downturn.

“Sandwell College was among a number of colleges at the ‘in principle’ approval stage and working on an application to be given the final go-ahead. Those schemes already approved in principle would require total funding of £2.7 billion. As a consequence, there are many more schemes than can be funded in the current spending round.”

Even at current record levels of funding, not all the schemes could be implemented on the original timescales.

Sandwell College vice-principal Scott Upton said they were “understandably concerned” about the potential delay in capital fundings.

“However, the new Sandwell College remains a funding priority for the West Midlands LSC and currently we do not expect any delay in final funding approval to have a significant bearing on our build timetable.”

The new Spon Lane campus, due for completion in 2010-11, will result in the Oldbury and Smethwick sites closing.