Council approves Itchen College plan (From Daily Echo)

Council approves Itchen College plan

7:20am Thursday 25th June 2009 in

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A MAJOR regeneration project for a Southampton estate has taken a leap forward.

City councillors have approved plans for a new campus for Itchen College on the site of the Eastpoint Centre in Thornhill.

Plans for a replacement £10.5m community centre on the same plot were also given the go-ahead.

Itchen College principal Barry Hicks said the new state-of-the-art college would provide a “high profile statement” at a city gateway and “first-class education” for the sixth form college’s 1,200 students.

However the college’s £48m move from its Sholing campus still hangs in the balance after the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), which was to stump up most of the cash, suspended a national building programme pending a spending review.

Mr Hicks said he was still “hopeful” of getting the funding, adding the planning consent showed the project was deliverable.

“It makes us more shovel ready,” he said. “Certainly we are still in the game.”

College bosses reckon the move would bring £14m a year to the local economy. They hope to open by September 2012.

The new campus will include two floodlit, multi-use games areas, a nursery, outdoor training area and parking for 140 cars. Woodland will be cleared to make way for an all weather sports pitch.

The entrance for traffic will be from Bursledon Road with an exit to Burgoyne Road. An NHS day centre on the site will be kept.

The new three-storey Eastpoint Centre will be built next to the 14-storey Hightown Towers block off Bursledon Road.

It will feature meeting rooms, a 200-seat restaurant, coffee lounge and community bar.

The second floor will comprise an 18-room conference facility with the central rooms able to be converted into a single large room for up to 600 delegates.

Funding for the Eastpoint Centre has been unaffected by the LSC spending freeze.

The public have been largely supportive of the plans. However one resident raised concerns over flash-flooding and the extra traffic.

Approving the plans, city councillors were confident the new development would be beneficial for residents.