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| LAST DITCH BID TO HALT COLLEGE MOVE |
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HERALD EXPRESS
Torbay is resurrecting its battle to save Dartington College of Art with a last minute bid to halt plans to shift the entire college campus to Cornwall - along with the £4 million it is worth to the South Devon economy.
The Bay's mayor Nick Bye is appealing to the money men at the Regional Development Agency to put a hold on any decision to hand over cash to make the Cornwall move possible.He has the backing of South Devon College which wants to take on a partnership deal which would see the college move to Paignton - while still maintaining a presence on the Dartington Hall Estate where it has been based for the last 37 years.
Mr Bye said that most local political leaders now recognised that keeping the college as it is now at Dartington is 'unrealistic' whereas a link up with South Devon College is realistic.
Torbay put in a bid for a South Devon College partnership with Dartington some 12 months ago when plans to shift the art college to Falmouth first became public but it was rejected by the Dartington governors.
Since then there has been growing concern over the way European money being provided to produce new jobs would simply be used to shift them from Devon to neighbouring Cornwall.
In a letter to the RDA Mr Bye explained: "In a nutshell, there is great concern regarding the adverse impact that this move would have on the economy and culture of Totnes and South Devon, also the identity of the college. There is clearly substantial opposition to the idea that public money should be used to simply move this college."
His letters comes as the RDA is about to consider the Dartington college governors' bid for millions of pounds that will make the move possible and follows a meeting held on Friday involving local councillors, campaigners, students, Mr Bye and MP Anthony Steen.
Mr Steen has already voiced his concern that if campaigners win their battle to halt the RDA funding the college would die anyway because there was nowhere else for it to go.
Mr Steen, who attended the meeting, said he backed Mr Bye's initiative 100 per cent.
He believed the college would shortly be announcing that the deal with Falmouth had been agreed.
"I suspect it is solely a question of the European funding," he said.
"I have written to the RDA suggesting that if they do not get the European money they need for the move to Falmouth, they should look at the excellent idea of the link up with South Devon College.
"It is better to have 20 per cent of Dartington still at Dartington and the rest at South Devon College than to lose it all."
Mr Bye pointed out that since the original Torbay bid for the college was turned down South Devon College has announced ambitious expansion plans.
He added: "Competitiveness funding, and other sources of funding, may make a move to Torbay more viable than maintaining the college at its present home at Dartington Hall."
It was announced yesterday that Dartington College is facing a funding cut of nearly £50,000.
It follows the Government's decision to scrap funding for students who take a second degree, which has angered Labour as well as opposition MPs.
Those affected include mothers who want to retrain and return to work after a period at home looking after their children.
Others taking second degrees include people changing careers, who typically study part time, or people who want to expand on their first degree, such as a schoolteacher learning new skills.
Dartington will lose £41,194 according to figures published by the Higher Education Funding Council, which distributes university funding.
A total of 211 MPs, including 86 Labour MPs, have signed a Commons motion demanding that the Government thinks again, including Lib Dem MP for Torbay Adrian Sanders and Richard Younger-Ross, Lib Dem MP for Teignbridge.
A particular concern is the effect on the Open University, which could lose tens of millions of pounds.
Ministers say the cash will be diverted to help those who have never taken a degree at all, so that the total national funding for universities remains the same.
Mr Sanders said: "It's a retrograde step. If the Government is prepared to spend millions of pounds in taxpayers' money to move the college to another part of the South West, it isn't a case of a shortage of money."
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