A COLLEGE was today seeking a High Court injunction to stop a lecturers' strike due to start tomorrow.

The eleventh-hour move by Accrington and Rossendale College has been condemned by lecturers union NATFHE.

It has passed a resolution censuring college principal Michael Austin and calling on him to resign.

The union has pledged to go ahead with the five-day strike unless prevented by the courts.

The planned strike is in protest over the introduction of new working conditions for part-time lecturers.

A NATFHE spokesman said : "We are appalled. The best way to get the strike called off is to sit down and talk with us and reach a settlement, not spend thousands of pounds on a barrister."

College principal Mr Austin said : "It is a matter of a High Court action. We will wait for the verdict."

"Students should come in as usual in any event as arrangements would be made," he added.

A union spokesman said NATFHE would be contesting the injunction.

A letter from the college solicitors was faxed through to the legal department of NATFHE head office in London on Friday.

The letter stated that if the union did not call off its action by 4pm on Friday the legal firm were instructed to apply to the courts for an injunction requiring the union to call off the action.

The NATFHE spokesman said : "We were in the process of talks with them on Friday when they announced they were going to seek an injunction against us."

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