A group is being formed in a bid to save a Cumbrian closure-threatened agricultural college after one of its senior management team resigned.
Challenges facing Newton Rigg college, near Penrith, have been mounting since an independent review found the site was not ‘financially viable’ last month, putting around 117 jobs at risk.
The Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership (CLEP) and the University of Cumbria are taking lead roles in the group with Eden District Council and other prominent individuals including MPs Tim Farron and Neil Hudson.
CLEP chairman Lord Inglewood, a former Newton Rigg pupil, said: “We are committed to finding an alternative future for Newton Rigg and are working with potential investors to explore opportunities to achieve this. Alongside this, lead board members are working in partnership to identify what land-based provision is required, going forward. CLEP will do everything it can to secure a long term, sustainable future for Newton Rigg.
“It has clearly been very disappointing news, particularly for me personally as a former student. Here in Cumbria we see Newton Rigg as symbolic, given our land-based industries and the importance of these to Cumbria and its economy.”
It has emerged in the past week that Matt Bagley, former head of agricultural at the college and more recently of farms for Askham Bryan College, York – who has run the campus since 2011 after taking over from the University of Cumbria – is to leave his role in the coming weeks to take an estate management position in Lincolnshire.
Mr Bagley has been seen by some as a ‘champion’ of the Eden centre of learning.
With claims Newton Rigg has an annual operating deficit of £1m, lacked a “sustainable business model” and needed £20m of investment, education is set to stop in July 2021.
Julie Mennell, CLEP Board Member and University of Cumbria vice chancellor, said: “As the anchor HE Institution in Cumbria we want to step forward and work with partners to develop a strategy for land-based provision in Cumbria.
“We in the University will provide leadership to support this aim, in collaboration with CLEP’s people, employment and skills strategy group. The need for pace is understood as is the significance of addressing the long-term future of the land-based provision in our county.”
Leader of Eden council, Virginia Taylor, has pledged to support the fight to save the campus and “develop a Cumbria solution” alongside the NFU, CLA and University and College Union. A petition by Dr Hudson on his website to save Newton Rigg has gained nearly 4,000 signatures.
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