£1m rescue plan to secure future of historic college

Sep 25 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

A CRUCIAL £1m rescue plan to guarantee the future of a historic Mersey-side adult education college will be decided by Liverpool City Council this week.

Burton Manor College, in Neston, was established by local authorities across the North West but could be taken over and run by the University of Chester.

A report to the Executive Board, which meets this Friday, states the city council has been shoring up the college’s finances.

In 2006-7, it had an operating loss of £184,000, and the cumula-tive deficits covered by the council stand at £595,000.

According to a report prepared by Liverpool council: “The governors, with support from the council, would provide around £1m capital investment in the college to undertake immediate essential works (around £324,000) and other requisite improvement works (£650,000) to bring the property to best standards for such an establishment.”

But the deal, which councillors will be shown this week, would see the University of Chester run the college for the next 30 years and take over its running costs.

The agreement is for the University to use Burton Manor “for a mix of the college’s traditional residential /day courses and university courses appropriate to the college’s location”.

The building was originally owned by Henry Neville Glad-stone, third son of former Prime Minister William Gladstone between 1904 and 1921.

Burton Manor college opened in 1948 and offers courses rang-ing from photography to litera-ture, music and dance, evenings and on residential weekends.

Its establishment involved a number of public authorities, including Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bootle, Cheshire, Lancashire, University of Liverpool and Liverpool City Council.

Until the agreement of these authorities is secured, Liverpool council says it can’t proceed with the rescue plan.

The report said: “The firm advice from barristers is that, in order to protect the council from risk, contact should be made with those authorities (or their successors) who founded the college in order to establish an agreed position on the various interests in the college or in any potential disposal.”

The plan being put to the executive board on Friday proposes an interim agreement with funding for immediate works amounting to £324,000 being carried out, until the legal issues surrounding the long term future of the college are resolved.

liammurphy