A COLLEGE has announced plans for a £5million rebuilding programme - just days after students achieved its highest-ever A-level pass rate.

Accrington and Rossendale College is drawing up plans to build a new technology block at the back of its site in Sandy Lane, Accrington.

The college has also revealed it is looking for a new base in Rossendale, where it has hinted one of its Rawtenstall sites may be axed.

College chiefs said they will seek planning permission for the Accrington development within weeks. If the plans are approved, the college will ask for cash from the Further Education Funding Council.

The proposed new building would enable the college to leave its current rented premises in Eagle Street and unite its engineering, motor vehicle studies and construction departments on one site.

The college's computing facilities would be extended and improvements would be made to the canteen. The existing technology block, built in the 1950s, would be demolished and landscaping work would be carried out alongside Sandy Lane, where a new car park is planned to minimise parking problems for residents.

If approved, the works could start in the spring and be finished early in 2001. Current students would not experience disruption, according to the college.

The college has recently carried out refurbishments to its main Rawtenstall site in Haslingden Road.

But college bosses said another site at Bank Lea, Rawtenstall, "does not lend itself to refurbishment", and courses there would be moved to Accrington. The college has a site in Haslingden and has announced that another site in Rossendale was being sought.

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