By Kelly Eve and Rob Merrick

Last updated at 10:16, Saturday, 04 April 2009

A £30 million scheme to transform Carlisle College has ‘very little chance’ of going ahead, according to a new report.

An artist's impression of Carlisle College

The scheme is one of 79 across the country currently on hold following a funding fiasco that hit a national rebuilding scheme being managed by the Learning and Skills Council.

A report published this week casts doubt on whether the Carlisle rebuild can go ahead after revealing that £2.3bn set aside for revamping further education colleges nationally has already been spent – but another £2.7bn worth of projects had been approved without the money being available.

Sir Andrew Foster, a troubleshooter sent in by the Government, said: “It is my understanding that almost all of the £2.3bn has been spent.”

Asked if that meant the 79 projects in limbo had ‘very little chance of going ahead’, he replied: “That is one way of putting it.”

Jonathan Marshall, a partner in Carlisle-based law firm Burnetts, said the shambles is “causing heartache to many of the colleges” affected.

All projects, which had been given backing ‘in principle’, were all put on hold in December when the LSC realised that funds were running out – a blunder condemned as “predictable and probably avoidable” in Sir Andrew Foster’s report.

Mr Marshall said many colleges had already incurred costs from putting the building schemes out to tender when given the go ahead by the LSC.

“There are costs associated with waiting and there will be costs in having to produce new plans if they have to amend their original schemes,” he said.

“They were given the green light with their in principle bids and then were led up the garden path by the LSC.”

Carlisle College principal Moira Tattersall is hopeful that her scheme, which includes the creation of a dedicated centre for 14 to 19-year-olds and the transformation of the 1950s wings, will still receive backing.

College principals must now wait to hear their fate while a new priority list is drawn up for the money that remains. It is understood the criteria for determining the priority cases will be published later this month.

Sir Andrew has also called for urgent talks with the Treasury to boost the cash available, but he admitted: “No-one is going to rush to spend fresh funds when this funding has been spent without proper planning.”

His report was also scathing about the mismanagement of the financial scheme by the LSC, which allowed approvals to run far ahead of the cash available – and ignored early warnings as far back as February last year that the quango was going to overspend.

It was not until December that a moratorium was imposed, by which time a ‘tsunami’ of bids had been given approval in principle, totalling £2.6bn over those nine months.

Sir Andrew said the “most significant responsibility” for the blunders lay with the LSC, whose chief executive Mark Haysom resigned last week. His report also blames Universities Secretary John Mr Denham’s officials for failing to monitor the quango effectively.

Carlisle College principal Moira Tattersall said the LSC chief executive said they were determined to continue the capital programme.

“This, coupled with the fact that a needs-based assessment process is being talked about, gives me hope that our situation can be resolved,” she said.

KEve@cngroup.co.uk

First published at 09:10, Saturday, 04 April 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk