Ilkley College chiefs have been accused of getting their 'timing and sums' wrong as the closure of the Wells Road campus draws nearer.

The owners, the Bradford and Ilkley College Corporation (BICC), believe there are too few students to justifying retaining the campus, due to close next year.

Ilkley parish councillor Roy Fox (Lab, Ilkley South) is worried at the lack of progress being made with regard to providing adult education in the town, post 1999.

Coun Fox voiced his concerns after a meeting examining the college's future. "We have been promised that Ilkley will have this education provision. However, we still don't know where."

Coun Fox said college bosses had examined the site of All Saints First School as one option. They believed it would be possible to lease the site, if and when a new school is built in Skipton Road.

"To move to the All Saints site must a non-starter. The schools review doesn't seem likely to make that possible," said Coun Fox.

"Even if it was possible to move to the All Saints site, there would be a gap between the college closing and the school site becoming available. We could be talking 18 months to two years," said Coun Fox.

Coun Fox is confident BICC is doing its 'homework' into the problem, but he remains frustrated.

The college has examined various possible sites, including the Hillside complex and the International Wool Secretariat, to no avail.

"If the site is sold, I can see problems for anyone wanting to develop it, the number of tree preservation orders for starters," said Coun Fox.

Although students have been campaigning to save the college from closure, parish councillors have long been resigned to its fate but remain determined to secure adult education in Ilkley.

Coun Barbara Cussons (Con, Ilkley North) has voiced concern about this issue.

She told fellow councillors she worried that adult education classes would 'slip away' and the prospect of classes being scattered across the district was not appealing.

College assistant principal Rod Sawyer said BICC continued to take the matter of adult education very seriously indeed.

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