Bradford College courses to be held in Ilkley, Addingham, Burley-in-Wharfedale and Menston (From Ilkley Gazette)

Bradford College courses to be held in Ilkley, Addingham, Burley-in-Wharfedale and Menston

8:30am Thursday 27th May 2010

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ADULT education provision is to stay in the Ilkley area after a determined campaign by students and the efforts of local councillors to stop Bradford College pulling out of Wharfedale.

Bradford College, the largest further education provider in the Bradford District, has announced that all but one of the courses currently running at Bridge House in Ilkley is to be rehoused at one of several venues across Wharfedale from September.

There’s been a bit of a result but there’s a downside as well.

Anti-closure campaigner David Roberts

The college plans to close Bridge House, its last dedicated centre in Wharfedale, at the end of July.

College bosses have cited Government cuts to adult education funding, and the higher cost of negotiating a new lease, as their reasons for closing the centre.

Almost 30 part-time courses will be relocated in churches and other community venues in Ilkley, Addingham, Burley-in-Wharfedale and Menston in the next academic year.

The move has been welcomed by new Ilkley Parish Council chairman, Brian Mann. Local councillors recently held talks with Bradford College heads in an effort to secure the future of college courses in Wharfedale.

Although freelance lecturers and smaller organisations run a number of independent leisure and vocational courses in the area, Bradford College’s centre was seen by many as the much-diminished successor to the old Bradford and Ilkley Community College campus at Wells House and Burley Grange, Burley-in-Wharfedale, Wells House, on Ilkley’s Wells Road, originally a Victorian hydrotherapy centre and today converted to apartments, once boasted around 100 college staff and 400 students.

The mix of daytime and evening part-time courses, some of which are accredited courses, will be run at the Clarke Foley Centre, St Margaret’s Parish Church, Ilkley Baptist Church, All Saints Church and Christchurch in Ilkley, Addingham Memorial Hall, St Mary’s Parish Centre in Burley and Kirklands Community Centre in Menston.

Principal and chief executive of Bradford College, Michele Sutton, said: “Bradford College is delighted to announce that we have identified excellent alternative accommodation across Wharfedale to deliver community education.

“The people of Wharfedale will now be able to access our community education more easily as from September 2010, provision will be offered within a much wider area of the community. Parish councillors and students have been key to the success in identifying alternative locations and we are very appreciative of the assistance they have given us throughout this process.”

Councillor Brian Mann welcomed the announcement this week.

He said: “The Parish Council is very pleased with the outcome of Bradford College’s effort in continuing further education provision in the local area. We understand the difficulties the college has faced and we have worked with the college to ensure that the provision has an appeal to learners, is sustainable and continues to benefit the local community.”

Bridge House students mounted strong opposition to the impending loss of courses to the area, and used the Freedom of Information Act to seek financial figures from Bradford College about the running of Bridge House.

One of the chief campaigners, ex-Ilkley parish councillor, David Roberts, was pleased to learn the courses are to stay in Wharfedale, but had reservations about them being split between different centres.

“There’s been a bit of a result but there’s a downside as well,” he said.

He said older people without cars may be reluctant to travel outside Ilkley to attend the courses, as well as parents, who need to fit their courses around childcare.

Any future loss of courses will also be more difficult to spot, he says, and a course may disappear before students at other venues become aware of it.

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