College's £4.1m revamp (From Hampshire Chronicle)

College's £4.1m revamp

5:20pm Sunday 19th September 2010 in Education By Warwick Payne

EDUCATION bosses are borrowing £4.1m to improve Sparsholt College near Winchester and its satellite site in Andover.

Most of the cash – nearly £3m – is being spent in Sparsholt to upgrade the current facilities.

It comes after it missed out on £100m of Government grants last year for a much more ambitious overhaul.

The college spent £1.3m on its bid. It is unlikely to get the money back, which principal Tim Jackson branded as “disgraceful”.

College finance chiefs have now written off the lost cash, and are taking out a loan to fund the most vital upgrades.

The £4.1m required – a mere fraction of what the now defunct Learning and Skills Council might have provided – will be repaid over 25 years.

Mr Jackson said: “We can extend our borrowing further but with the comprehensive spending review coming up, that doesn’t seem very clever.”

He said with “good housekeeping” they could repay the loan but they were unlikely to see the £1.3m spent on the larger bid again.

“That money was spent by us in good faith, believing that we would be getting a multi-million pound scheme, and it’s disgraceful,” he said.

Much of the larger project would have involved a near-complete rebuild of the Andover campus.

Instead, the college is focusing on refitting its existing buildings and those on the larger Sparsholt site.

Mr Jackson added that the buildings were in good order, but some older ones would have been replaced under the £100m scheme.

“If that money hadn’t been available then we wouldn’t have even considered some of things we put in that plan,” he said.

The larger scheme would have taken three years to complete, but the smaller £4.1m version will be quicker.

Some improvements have already been made, and college chiefs hope that most of the work will be done by early 2011.

It includes eight extra classrooms and a new IT drop-in centre as part of a £750,000 investment in computer equipment.

Five other classrooms will become a higher education study zone, and there will be a new engineering workshop and machinery storage area.

Horticulture facilities are being expanded while animal management students will benefit from a new state-of-the-art cattery and teaching unit that opens this Christmas.

The college is also installing a small wind turbine to provide energy for its fish hatchery.

The final major item on the list is widening the main road through the Sparsholt campus.

Mr Jackson said it would add to the £10m to £15m that had already been invested at the college since he took over in 1998.

He added: “Sparsholt College has a huge campus and our reputation sees us attract increasing numbers of students both locally within Hampshire and surrounding counties, nationally and some even internationally.

“Naturally this has contributed to ever-increasing student numbers and a demand for more classrooms, upgrading existing facilities and improving the campus infrastructure to accommodate more people and more vehicles.

“This comprehensive investment now will ensure a first class learning experience for many years to come.”

For more details about the college visit www.sparsholt.ac.uk or call 01962 776441.