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 a
A group set up to save Newton Rigg College said it still had confidence in its plans to buy the campus. It was announced yesterday that the Further Education Commissioner-led Newton Rigg Strategic Review concluded it had been unable to identify an organisation to continue delivering sustainable land-based education at.
The Newton Rigg Campus in Penrith TWO former Workington MPs described the decision to close Cumbria s 125-year-old agricultural college with more than 100 jobs losses as shameful and very distressing . Dale Campbell-Savours and Baroness Sue Hayworth have joined forces with former cabinet minister, Lord David Clark of Windermere, in condemning the announcement this week by the Further Education Commissioner that Newton Rigg College at Penrith was financially unviable , and declared no suitable bids had been received to take it over. Former Shadow Cabinet member, Sue Haworth, said she had contacted every member of the House of Commons Defra Select Committee to carry out an urgent inquiry into the whole Newton Rigg College affair. The whole business is very distressing, she said.
Bids to secure future of Newton Rigg unsuccessful
9 February 2021 |
Askham Bryan College s Newton Rigg campus is now set to close (Photo: Cumbria YFC)
Newton Rigg College is set to close for good after two last-ditch attempts to keep the 125-year-old agriculture college open failed.
The Further Education Commissioner s (FEC) strategic review has concluded that it had been unable to identify an organisation to continue delivering land based education at the site.
The Cumbria-based agri college was already earmarked to close in July 2021 after the present owners confirmed that it would no longer deliver education from the site.
Askham Bryan College said declining student numbers at the Penrith campus had left it with significant financial losses.