THE MALVERN Hills College SOS Task Group has announced it has raised £850,000 for a formal offer to be made to Warwickshire Colleges Group for the building.
The formal offer has been made by the stakeholder and member of the Task Group, Worcestershire Community Foundation.
The SOS Task Group, formed by Coun Tom Wells, has worked extremely hard over the past two months to bring together the partners required to make the offer possible in the fight to save the college from closing this summer.
Worcestershire Community Foundation (WCF) Trustee, Roger Britton said: “As part of the SOS Task Group it’s tremendous to now be able to take forward this formal offer to Warwickshire Colleges Group.
“I am looking forward to a rapid agreement by WCG to this fair offer so we can get on and make sure that the people of Malvern can continue to use this wonderful college.
“We are thrilled to have raised this amazing sum and we are open and would welcome any further contributions which anyone might want to make to ensure we save our college.”
Coun Beverley Nielsen, SOS Task Group Chairman, said: “Warwickshire Colleges Group (WCG) has stated further education students have been falling at Malvern Hills College.
“They haven’t made it clear that there had been an increase in adult education students who were self-funded and whose lives have been transformed through their experience at the College.
“I’m delighted that through the work of the SOS Task Group we have prompted the necessary partnerships for this formal offer to have been made.
“We have brought together town, district and county councillors.”
She said among them were people who used to run Malvern Hills College in earlier years and people, such as Roger Britton, who were involved in other active local charities.
“I’m pleased partners across Malvern Hills are united in their view of the continuing need for Malvern Hills College in providing potentially further, higher, 16-19 GCSE and A-Level and lifelong learning on the site into the future.”
Yesterday on our website we reported that West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin had urged WCG to take the offer and a response from the college group to the MP’s statement and the offer.
To read that story, click here.
