A NEW independent agricultural college is on the cards for Cumbria.
That's the pledge from a group fighting to save125-year-old Newton Rigg college from closure in the summer with more than 100 jobs losses.
Yesterday the Further Education Commissioner announced it deemed the Penrith college financially unviable and found no suitable bids were received to take it over.
More than 500 students and apprentices attend, but the FEC said "most" courses and training could be found elsewhere. Owner Askham Bryan College in York plans to sell the site when it closes in July.
However, chairman of one of two bids submitted in a bid to save the college, Newton Rigg Limited, Professor Andrew Cobb, made the following statement: "It’s time to move beyond the Strategic Review. Our financial partners, who share our commitment to Newton Rigg’s future, will now seek to purchase the campus from Askham Bryan thus facilitating our 3-5-year strategy: A new dawn of Newton Rigg-led training and apprenticeships, the progressive development of a Rural Business School and Agri-Tech initiative, all forming a robust pathway to the incorporation of a new, independent, Cumbrian, Newton Rigg College.