BOURNEMOUTH AND POOLE COLLEGE IN CASH CRISIS (From Bournemouth Echo)

BOURNEMOUTH AND POOLE COLLEGE IN CASH CRISIS

7:00am Friday 10th July 2009 in

By Juliette Astrup »

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BOURNEMOUTH and Poole College recorded a £7.5m deficit last year and needs to find almost £1m to stay open until the end of September.

The shocking depths of the financial crisis were revealed by college principal and chief executive Lawrence Vincent in a letter to MPs.

He states that the institution has “no money in the bank”, is “living off a £600k overdraft” and needs “to raise £900k just to keep the college running until the end of September.”

The situation came about after the government failed to deliver the promised funding for a £130m redevelopment project.

But the college, which had approval in principle for the plan, had already spent £11m in preparation – wiping out its £5m reserves and chalking up the multi-million-pound deficit.

Mr Vincent said he had met with the Learning and Skills Council to ask for the money back, but did not know how much they would get, or when.

His letter adds: “My fear is that they will ‘stabilise’ us but refuse to pay back all the money that we have spent. I want at least £8 million back.”

But when Mr Vincent spoke to the Echo he said: “We are and will remain solvent, but I want the cash back.”

He said the college had a “slight liquidity problem, not an instability issue” which would be resolved when students enrolled in September and funding came through.

He added: “What really matters is the quality of what we do here. That will remain regardless of this development.”

The college “remained committed to redevelopment” at both campuses but it was “too early to say” what alternatives would be considered.

Poole MP Robert Syms, who has scheduled an adjournment debate on the issue, said simply: “If they don’t get compensation the future of the college could be in doubt.”

COUNTDOWN TO CASH CRISIS

March 2008: Bournemouth and Poole College announced plans for £130 transformation of both its campuses – included demolishing and rebuilding the North Road site in Poole and renovating Bournemouth’s Lansdowne campus.

October to November 2008: Planning permission is granted, and the college expects final approval in March from the Learning and Skills Council, which is due to fund 80 per cent of the project.

December 2008: Beset with delays, the LSC puts a freeze on new bids while it carries out a review.

March 2009: The LSC freezes its Building Colleges for the Future Programme after it emerged it had encouraged bids from colleges worth £5.7 billion more than its budget. A total of 144 colleges expecting approval have their projects put on hold. LSC chief executive Mark Haysom quit his role, admitting failures in the programme’s management.

April 2009: An independent review of the debacle by Sir Andrew Foster’s concludes that the crisis was “predictable and probably avoidable” and “could have been mitigated if action had been taken earlier.”

June 2009: Government announces that only 13 of the 144 colleges will get funding – the rest, including Bournemouth and Poole told they will have to wait, with no guarantees of funding, until the next review in 2011.

Comments(32)

BobbyPoole says...
7:16am Fri 10 Jul 09

unbelievable is what this country is.

Banks get bailed out after their own incompetence and then get paid vast "bonuses" for thier mistakes.

MP's can have their moats cleaned and their ducks housed

but a college is facing closure