A £30m project to rebuild Witney’s college campus will still move forward, despite a lack of funding.

Steve Billcliffe, who is in charge of overseeing Abingdon & Witney College’s campus redevelopment, insisted it was “business as usual” for the project.

The news comes despite the college being told last week it would not get any money this year from the Government’s Learning and Skills Council towards the rebuild.

Mr Billcliffe said the former Witney ambulance station and other buildings in Welch Way will be demolished while the college tries to find a way to carry out the rebuilding of the campus, in Holloway Road.

He said: “We’re pushing ahead with the demolition of the unsightly bits of the site.

“It will look as though things are happening – we will not slow down our development in terms of progressing forwards.

“We’re talking to others to get alternate sources of capital funding to progress with our plans.”

On Monday, college principal Teresa Kelly told members of staff that the college would hold talks with Barclays Bank this week to discuss the possibility of an investment scheme.

This would involve the bank owning the new buildings for 20 years, while the college would pay service charges and interest.

West Oxfordshire District Council has also repeated its promise to help the project with a loan. Council leader Barry Norton said: “All along, the council has supported the college to find a way forward and we will continue to do this and look at ways to help, wherever possible.”

Another alternative, Mr Billcliffe revealed, was for the college to use empty shops in the town centre as temporary teaching areas.

Mr Billcliffe said: “We could have our hairdressing academy in the High Street or in a main thoroughfare in a retail setting.

“We could set up in there for three years while we finish our project in Holloway Road.”

The idea was inspired by a college art exhibition currently taking place at 64 High Street – a former carpet showroom.

The college’s multi-million-pound plan to transform the campus, which still has Nissen huts used by the US Army Air Force during the Second World War, was put on hold last December, along with scores of other college schemes across the country, after the LSC realised it had promised colleges more money than it had to spend.

Last week, the body announced it would be awarding grants to just 13 out of 180 sites that had applied for funding.

Since September, the college is believed to have paid £40,000 a month for 57 mobile buildings to accommodate all 600 full-time students and staff at the campus.

All the old buildings have been stripped ready for demolition, which should have started in March.

LSC spokesman Steven Heaton said: “Locally, LSC staff are very concerned about the situation in Witney and the intention is that they will work very closely with the principal to do everything we can to find a way forward.”

witney@oxfordmail.co.uk