THE announcement of a new venue for further and adult education classes in Ilkley has been met with resignation rather than celebration by a parish councillor.
"It is not ideal but it is the only building of any size that is available," said Coun Barbara Cussons.
Courses are presently held at the Ilkley campus of the Bradford and Ilkley Community College but that is due to be closed and sold off next year.
College bosses, the Bradford and Ilkley College Corporation, promised that the sell-off would not mean the end for adult education in the Wharfe Valley but they ran into problems when searching for an alternative venue.
They now plan to make alterations to an empty office block at 12 Bolton Bridge Road, Ilkley, so classes can be held there until a more permanent solution can be found.
Coun Cussons said: "I think it is the only solution in the interim. I am sure they have been trying and I am sure there has been a commitment.
"We would have liked the result to have been a little more suitable, but we are fortunate that they are going to take it on."
In the long-term, college bosses are looking to the site of the All Saints Church of England School on Leeds Road.
Bradford education bosses are planning to vacate the site once a new All Saints Primary School has been built at Skipton Road. A statement released on behalf of the Bradford and Ilkley College Corporation says: "The options which the college is currently investigating highlight the determination to ensure the adult education provision currently supplied to the people of the Wharfe Valley will be maintained."
Because the building at Bolton Bridge Road is small, college bosses are planning to make more use of Burley Grange to hold classes.
Coun Cussons said that many people believed that the 'Hillside' building at the top of Wells Road would be ideal but college bosses have ruled it out because it would cost too much to convert into a teaching facility.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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