KENDAL College bosses are hoping a radical plan to create a Swiss-style hotel school in the Lake District will rescue the University of Cumbria’s Ambleside campus.

The debt ridden university want to mothball Ambleside’s campus to save money, but Kendal College’s principal Graham Wilkinson is urging them to adopt his hotel school idea.

He said: “Our vision for Ambleside is based on the Ecole Hoteliere at Lausanne in Switzerland which is 113 years old and has all sorts of fantastic facilities for its students.

“Cumbria has 900 hotels available for potential under-graduates to practice hotel keeping and is a force to be reckoned with in relation to food. It would be brilliant to have a centre of international excellence in this area.”

The school could teach up to 150 students and include cour-ses in business, hospitality management and leadership.

A working group has been set up between Kendal College and Cumbria Tourism to develop the concept.

The university has until March 25 to submit its new business strategy to the North West Development Agency (NWDA) – its main financial sponsor.

Mr Wilkinson is urging the NWDA to only accept a plan which includes the hotel school as this would keep students at the campus.

A spokeswoman for the University of Cumbria said: “The university has met with Kendal College to discuss this business proposition.

“Although an interesting idea, an international hotel training school would require a large investment.

“The university is however still considering the propos-ition in the long term but much further work is required to establish if it would be viable.”

A meeting of the Ambleside Campus Community Liaison Group has been told it was not the intention of the univ-ersity to sell-off the campus Professor Liz Beaty, newly-appointed pro-vice chancellor, said a series of working groups had been set up to address issues affecting the site.