The Project

Plans to rebuild the entirety of City College Norwich’s campus, at a cost of £173m, have been shelved following a national funding crisis.

CCN failed to make the grade as part of the Learning & Skills Council’s (LSC) Building Colleges for the Future plans- meaning it will now have to wait until the next funding review.

By 2015 the entire Ipswich Road campus would have been rebuilt to provide a modern, carbon neutral college for the growing number of local students. The work would have begun this summer.

Phase 1 of the plans would have conprised new academic buildings, an underground car park and a green energy centre. A second phase would have included more teaching spaces as well as a hotel and restaurant complex open to the public, allowing CCN students to practice the skills they are developing.

During the application process, the LSC asked City College to widen the scope of its project- which the college did. At a total cost of £3.3m of the college’s money. Now, given that the plans have been put on hold, CCN is left with some very expensive architects’ drawings, and little else.

Building Colleges for the Future is a national ‘pot’ of money which provides finance to rebuild and modernise colleges across the country. Norfolk is yet to benefit from this scheme, which plans to spend £1.9 billion on 675 projects between 2009 and 2011.

Unfortunately, these funding hold-ups are not limited to Norfolk. Just £2.3b is left in the national ‘pot’, and with 144 capital projects costing £5.7b in the pipeline, a funding gap of £3.4b is evident. Consequently, the LSC approved just eight projects earlier this year. Behind this wait 79 colleges that have their plans approved in detail. And then there are the 65 colleges who only have their proposals agreed ‘in principle’, such as CNN.

Dick Palmer, the college’s Principal, said that ‘the case for City College Norwich’s redevelopment remains as strong as ever’, and that until the 2011-12 funding review happens, they will be ‘investigating alternative ways’ to create a ‘21st Century College’.

The president of CCN Students’ Union, Shane Mann, expressed his disappointment, saying that ‘[the] priority has to now be to work alongside the College in determination of delivering a first class service to students regardless of this’.

The College plans to reapply at the next LSC Spending Review, starting in 2011/12, and is continuing to invest millions in their infrastructure each year. But it seems that for now, at least, Norfolk is not able to Build Colleges for the Future.

DUNCAN SMITH
DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR