A multi million pound new sixth form college will be built on a prominent city centre site as part of a major shake up in Bradford’s post 16 education.

New College Bradford will be built on the former site of Britannia Mills, off Nelson Street, which was demolished last year to make way for a new swimming pool. Plans for the pool have since been scrapped, leaving the site empty.

The £19m college, which will eventually have 1,200 pupils, with open in September 2019.

Last year a review of post 16 education in the district found that standards would improve if smaller, in-school sixth forms were closed, and pupils instead attended large sixth form colleges.

Authored by Bradford Council and several school principals, the review said it would improve the district's poor post 16 results and help schools become more financially viable.

Some schools have already announced they would be closing their sixth forms - Queensbury School will close its post 16 provision in summer 2018, and Carlton Bolling College, which recently consulted with parents about closing its sixth form in 2019.

New College Bradford will be run by the New Collaborative Learning Trust, which started at New College Pontefract and last month opened New College Doncaster.

As well as this new sixth form college, another post 16 centre is being planned by the Dixons Academy Trust, which runs several primary and secondary schools in Bradford. The chain has said they hope to open in a central Bradford location - but a spokesman said they were not able to specify which site yet.

Bradford Council bought the site for £1m early last year, and then spent £212,000 on demolition, survey, and design work in preparation for a new swimming pool and sports complex - part of a major shake up of the district's leisure services.

But later in the year they scrapped the project, citing the “tightening grip of austerity."

Bradford Council has sold the Nelson Street site to the Education Funding Agency to enable the development of New College Bradford.

The trust will then put the building project out to tender and apply for planning permission for a state of the art college building.

Pauline Hagen, New Collaborative Learning Trust CEO, said: “We have worked closely with the government’s Education and Skills Funding Agency to ensure that we could identify a suitable location as quickly as possible, and we are delighted to have found a site as good as this.

“Along with the confirmation of capital funding earlier in the summer, this announcement means plans are well under way for the opening of New College Bradford in September 2019.

“The continued support we’ve received from across Bradford, for example with the Bradford Diocesan Academy Trust, means that not only are we building a new site, we’re also building new partnerships with others equally committed to improving educational outcomes for Bradford’s young people.”

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, Bradford Council's Executive Member for Regeneration, Planning and Transport said: "We welcome this major investment into Bradford city centre. The site has excellent transport links and will be accessible to young people across our district. It will increase the footfall into our city and provide an excellent campus for young people to learn in."

Councillor Imran Khan, Executive Member for Education, Employment and Skills said: "This is great news for Bradford's young people. New College Bradford's trust have a strong track record for delivering post-16 education.

"This new school will boost the choice and quality of A-level, BTEC and other qualifications available. It will increase the chances of young people from Bradford fulfilling their potential and going on to the higher education and employment they aspire to."

Councillor Simon Cooke, leader of the Conservatives on the council, said: "This is great news to see the government investing in Bradford and in the future of Bradford education."

But he said the council was still likely to lose money on the site, adding: "The council has to recognise that they spent more on this land than they bought it for. The Council's property dealing arm hasn't covered itself in glory."

That area of the city centre had also been proposed as a possible site to link the city to any future High Speed 3 rail line. Cllr Cooke added: "It is really important that there is a connection between the planning for this site and any future railway links."

Councillor David Ward, education spokesman for the Independents and Liberal Democrats, said: "I've been an advocate for sixth form colleges for a very long time. Bradford has been quite unusual in its lack of sixth form colleges, and for almost every secondary school to have a sixth form.

"Sixth form colleges are some of the best performing post 16 provisions in the country. They are not as limited as school based sixth forms.


"It makes sense having this in a city centre location, the young people are old enough to make their own way in on public transport and this site has good links. It will be great for the city centre."