CHIEFS at Gloucestershire College are on tenterhooks, hoping that today’s Autumn statement by Chancellor Philip Hammond will include funding for a new Cinderford campus.
The college believes that the Chancellor will announce £15m funding for a new Forest campus as part of his post-Brexit building boom to keep the UK economy on track.
A new college campus is central to Cinderford’s Northern Quarter regeneration plans, but governors have yet to pin down the cash to turn the drawing board plans into bricks and mortar.
Without funding to move from Coleford to Cinderford a whole chain of events that have been planned to regenerate both towns will struggle to get off the ground.
Gloucestershire College Principal Matthew Burgess said that the proposed college will house a newly created Sixth Form run in partnership with Dene Magna.
He said: “We are currently waiting for the outcome of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, due on November 23.
“After this date we will be able to confirm our timeline and funding for the Northern Quarter project, however it remains our intention to welcome students to our new Forest of Dean Campus in September 2018.”
The Forest of Dean District Council has already completed the necessary legal work to hand the land to the college once it gets confirmation that the move will go ahead.