A MAJOR threat hangs over a £60m scheme to rebuild the further education college at Oxpens — viewed as a centrepiece of Oxford’s West End development.

Oxford and Cherwell Valley College’s city campus was to have been completely redeveloped, with the sprawling collection of outdated buildings replaced with a glass-fronted structure.

But it is feared that the scheme could become one of the biggest victims of the funding fiasco surrounding the Learning & Skills Council.

The plans to create a modern new college facing out to Castle Mill Stream were well advanced and seen as the first major step in transforming a run-down area of the city. With the Westgate shopping redevelopment being put back indefinitely because of the economic downturn, the Oxpens scheme had assumed even greater significance.

But the scheme was heavily dependent on a substantial contribution from the LSC, the Government quango that has had to call a halt to building at 79 further education colleges, after running out of funding.

It is now clear the crash of the multi-billion-pound project to rebuild further education colleges will impact on thousands of teenagers right across the county.

A question mark now also hangs over Oxford & Cherwell Valley’s plans to demolish its Blackbird Leys site and replace it with a new £20m facility, featuring a major centre for sports studies. The new college building in the centre of the estate was to have focused heavily on vocational courses.

Originally, completion was expected in 2011, a year behind the proposed new four-storey building in Oxpens.

Oxford & Cherwell Valley also planned to spend £40m on redeveloping its Banbury campus. The three-phase plan would be one of the largest ever undertaken in the UK by a college of further education.

Concern also surrounds Ruskin College’s scheme to redevelop its Headington campus, following the controversial decision to sell its historic headquarters in Jericho to Exeter College for £12m. Ruskin had planned to transfer all its activities to its 20-acre Headington campus. But the £20m scheme was also heavily dependent on LSC funding.

The news follows the shelving of the £30m redevelopment of the Abingdon & Witney College campus in Holloway Road, Witney, which was at an even more advanced stage. Work stopped after 600 students had already been moved into 57 temporary cabins, with college buildings already stripped out ready for demolition.

The three Oxford & Cherwell Valley schemes together would have cost £120m. Part of the Oxpens site was to have been sold, along with half of its Cuddesdon Way site in Blackbird Leys, to raise money. But the LSC was expected to contribute £100m.

Phil Waddup, Oxford & Cherwell Valley’s capital project director, said: “We had been right through the application process and were working on detailed designs. We thought it was all systems go. Four years’ planning has gone into this, with about £2m already invested in bringing the scheme forward.

“If we do not get this money, we will not have these new innovative buildings.”

Further education colleges were actively encouraged by the Learning & Skills Council to apply for funding to create world-class facilities. Abingdon & Ruskin College principal Audrey Mullender said: “Ours is a small project compared to many. But Ruskin needs this project to create a college fit for the 21st century. It is extremely unfortunate that this has happened. It is something I have been working for since I came here.”