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New college planned in £70M transformation

Diane Leach
29/ 9/2006

THE transformation of Hopwood Hall College combined with the creation of a specialist sixth form centre are at the heart of a £70M project.

The college has confirmed its commitment to a new and innovative accommodation strategy to completely rebuild the St Mary's Gate site by 2011.

Although still in the early stages, the college has already received enthusiastic and supportive feedback from the Learning Skills Council, which, it is anticipated, could provide funding towards the £70M project. It is now looking forward to moving on to the next stage of planning.

Property consultants AA Projects are involved in the bid that would see the demolition of the existing 1960s buildings to make way for the outstanding new facilities.

Hopwood Hall principal Derek O'Toole said: "The transformation of both the Rochdale and Middleton campuses will see the creation of a new and inspirational further education college with exceptional education and training facilities for all learners."

This year, the college recruited the largest number of 16 to 18-year-old students in its 16-year history, despite others choosing to continue their A level studies outside the borough.

A total of 2,715 young people took up full-time courses - 250 of them on A level courses - which was up by 300 on last year's figures. They include a growing number of young people travelling to Rochdale from outside the borough.

The college is enthusiastic about working in partnership with Rochdale Council and local stakeholders in the creation of a new sixth form centre, which it envisages will stand on the St Mary's Gate site next to Hopwood Hall's new buildings.

As a result, it is expected that some college courses would relocate to the Middleton campus, which has already seen significant development over recent years, with the completion of the Henry West building, sports arena, boxing academy and football park costing over £10M.

Mr O'Toole added: "The success of both the new college and the sixth form centre would fundamentally change the face of education and training in Rochdale. Such a large investment will be of enormous benefit to learners and we are extremely eager to see how these projects will take shape in the coming months."