Workshop buildings hit the dust

Workshop buildings at Stafford College have now been flattened, ready to make way for a £13 million redevelopment.

Only a ramp remains from the site where the buildings, badly damaged in a fire three years ago, used to stand. Work is now going on to clear the rubble.

A new building housing a learning resource centre will replace the workshops at the Tenterbanks site.

Principal Steve Willis hopes the new facilities, which will include integrated IT suites and teaching areas for catering and beauty therapy, will help the college to increase its apprentice numbers.

He believes the redevelopment will also provide a significant boost to the town centre economy because of an increase in student numbers.

The redevelopment will also provide outdoor recreational space for the Earl Street college's students through landscaping and pedestrianisation of the campus.

The college's original £62m redevelopment proposals had to be scaled down after Learning and Skills Council funding fell through in 2009. The current project is being funded solely from the college's resources.

The new look college will offer training restaurants and beauty salons open to the public.

Plumbing, carpentry and bricklaying students who used the now demolished buildings have moved into nearby workshops within the college's technology centre at Palmbourne.

People can follow the progress on the project through a webcam at www. stafford coll.ac.uk

The college has its next open evening on June 22 from 6pm to 8.30pm when visitors will be able to find out more about the redevelopmenthgh scheme.