More than 20 jobs cut at North Shropshire College

Herefordshire and Ludlow and North Shropshire College has said the jobs will go across two campuses in Oswestry and Walford.

College principal Ian Peake admitted the cuts in jobs, which will be mainly in management and administrative roles, are needed to address long standing financial issues the college has had.

Confirming the loss of jobs, he said: "Yes there will be job cuts, we have been consulting with staff and representatives for several weeks now and there will be redundancies.

"They are needed to resolve the financial issues that we have had at the college that people are no doubt aware of.

"They will be made in management and administration staff, and there will be some teaching staff that will go.

"The college has had long standing financial difficulties and they need to be addressed, and these are efficiency savings that need to be made.

"We are hoping the redundancies will be voluntary as much as they can be."

Last year the college had planned to merge with Reaseheath College in Nantwich, but due to funding issues the merger fell through.

A deal was struck with Herefordshire and Ludlow, a move that makes the merged colleges more cost effective, with Mr Peake previously stating the deal will help tackle debt burden and a backlog of maintenance.

The deal was officially signed off on the £27 million merger in November, making it the largest college in Shropshire, Herefordshire and Telford and Wrekin.

Despite the cut in jobs, Mr Peake has insisted there will be no affect on the courses offered, with A levels returning to the Oswestry campus next year.

He added: "There will be no affect on the services or the courses we offer, we have published the prospectus for 2019 and it is very good.

"We have some A-levels we are offering again next year and we are still very strongly committed to providing courses."