10:10am Thursday 25th February 2010
By Amanda Greaves
The remaining former Bradford and Ilkley College further education centre in Wharfedale is to close this year.
Bradford College, the biggest provider of further education in the Bradford District, and former owner of Ilkley’s historic Wells House, will pull out of Bridge House, Bolton Bridge Road, this summer.
The move could result in redundancies, the college has confirmed, and although it is seeking alternative local premises to run courses, the college says it cannot say which classes it will be able to run in Wharfedale in future.
The announcement has both saddened and angered students, who, as well as staff, were called to meetings at Bridge House yesterday to learn more about the closure.
Bridge House has been the college’s main base in the town since it moved out of the Wells House campus in 1999. Wells House, the historic former hydrotherapy centre, once boasted around 400 students and 100 staff.
Bradford College also provided courses at its other centre, Burley Grange, Burley-in-Wharfedale, until it closed in 2006.
College bosses ran into criticism at the time – as they also reduced the number of courses available in Wharfedale, and cut staff pay, after a reduction in Government funding.
They were accused by one councillor of running down adult education services in the valley.
Further cuts came in 2007, and fears for the future of Bridge House surfaced when a sign went up at the site – which Bradford College leases – advertising it as a potential site for development.
Bradford College says its lease will expire at the end of July, and financial considerations – including more cuts in Government funding – mean it cannot renew the lease.
In a statement, the college said: “Bradford College’s lease of Bridge House in Ilkley is due to expire at the end of July 2010. The terms of the new lease after this period are not financially viable for the college. This, coupled with a recently announced Government cut of £1 million in adult funding, means that the college will have to withdraw from Bridge House from September 2010. Redeployment opportunities will be available to staff affected but some redundancies may also be necessary. The college remains committed to delivering education opportunities in Ilkley and is currently researching alternative venues.”
Students have little hope that the college will keep running their well-subscribed courses in Ilkley, and say these courses are essential to members of the community.
One student said: “Will we, in a few months’ time, have the college saying ‘unable to find cost-effective promises in Ilkley’? Originally we had our own Ilkley College, which was absorbed by Bradford College, who then sold the college site, Wells House.”
Another questioned Bradford College’s obligation to keep its services in the Ilkley area, and asked what promises were made when the college pulled out of Wells House.
Adult education students also sympathised with the staff waiting to learn if they are to keep their jobs.
Burley-in-Wharfedale resident and jewellery class student, Alison Kennedy, told the Gazette that the courses play an important role to local people.
“All of the courses are full, there are none under-subscribed and for a lot of people this is their only social contact weekly,” she said.
A multiple sclerosis sufferer who lost her four-year-old son, Matty, just over a year ago, she said local college courses have much to offer for people in her position – and believes there are many other people with disabilities, illnesses, or living with personal tragedies, who feel the need to keep the contact that local college courses have to offer.
In a factsheet sent to students late last week, Bradford College said its current lease actually ends on May 31, but the landlord had agreed to extend it to the end of July. The college said the landlord had had no alternative but to increase the cost of the new lease ‘significantly’ and it was not possible for the college to renew it, due to financial reasons.
In its factsheet, the college also said it planned to deliver a similar provision to that which has been available in the past – but this depended on accommodation, storage space, access to PCs and funding priorities.
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