Spotlight falls on Shropshire colleges merger bid

College managers held a public meeting at The Whitehouse Hotel in Wellington last night over proposals to merge Shrewsbury Sixth Form College, Shrewsbury College and New College in Telford.

Potential job losses, travel costs and the impact on courses were highlighted as concerns by teaching union representatives in response to the plans.

A consultation on the merger opened earlier this month but Jean Evanson, NUT representative at Shrewsbury Sixth Form College, said there were a number of worries and questions which needed to be answered.

She said funding had already been cut in sixth form colleges and in the further education sector and there were concerns over what further cuts would be made.

She said: "We know that the current Government is planning eight per cent of cuts so what are those effects? Straight away we want to know how many jobs are going to be lost. We know that jobs will be lost. In fact, jobs are being lost at Shrewsbury Sixth Form this year.

"We already have courses cut from the curriculum.

"We've been cut to the bone. What happens next?

"If by merging colleges that are in Shrewsbury and Telford we are then going to say to students you've got to travel in between the two. What's the impact there?"

She said the union wanted to know course provision would be protected and improved and another concern was that an extra layer of management would be added which would have cost implications.

Ms Evanson added: "We don't have a detailed breakdown of that cost. We have vague percentage figures but we don't know how much the new CEO is going to earn."

The merger proposal is for New College and Shrewsbury College to merge into Shrewsbury Sixth Form College, creating one large sixth form college group – with all three sites remaining.