WOOLWICH COLLEGE (Hansard, 5 July 1976)

§ Mr. John Cartwright (Woolwich, East)

I very much welcome the opportunity of drawing attention to the accommodation problems of Woolwich College, particularly as this debate has come on at a rather more civilised hour than appeared likely at one time. In so doing, I must declare rather more than the usual constituency Member's interest. I have been a member of the governing body of the college since 1964. At that time it was familiarly known as the Woolwich Day College and was occupying premises in an elderly and very unsuitable school building.

Ironically, when I joined the governors 12 years ago the college was pinning all its hopes on a new building, just as it is today. That first new building—what might be called phase one of the college —was formally opened in 1967 by Sir Richard Marsh. However, it was not long before accommodation pressures began to build up once again. Within a few years it was quite clear that the college would be unable to meet the growing demands, not only from the established community in the Woolwich area but from the increasing population of Thamesmead New Town, unless it had substantial extra accommodation.

That need was reinforced when ILEA's review of further and higher education changed the role of the college. From being a further education establishment catering for the needs of the 16-to-19year-olds, it was to become a multipurpose, multidiscipline, all-through college catering for a wider range of students and providing a more extensive range of courses to a higher ceiling. The review also resulted in the designation of Woolwich as one of only five main engineering centres in the ILEA area.

After a good deal of discussion and debate, an ideal site was found for an extension to the college. This was inside the area of Thamesmead but also within easy walking distance of the present building. Work began on the design of the extension, and all the planning of the college's development was based on the 1132 assumption that the new building would be ready for occupation between 1975 and 1977. For example, in the ILEA review of further and higher education produced in May 1973 the education officer commented: the college is comparatively small now, but with the Thamesmead extension already planned, it should be able to provide all-through courses in a variety of disciplines and meet the needs of the area. This underlines the extent to which the future role of the college was seen by the authority to depend upon the extra accommodation. On this basis, it was accepted that the college would have to endure short-term overcrowding in order to build up a plateau of courses and students ready for a smooth translation into the new building. Six temporary classrooms were leased at the YMCA building in Woolwich Dockyard. These are fully used mainly by full-time A- and O-level students from the liberal arts department. No other short-term additional accommodation has been found, despite efforts by the college to locate suitable premises and to persuade ILEA to join the search for more space.

The college having accepted the demands made on it, both by the growing local population and by the wider role established by the ILEA review, it came as a considerable blow when the authority withdrew the new building from the 1976–77 building programme, leaving the college out on a limb.

The reasons for the decision were given to me by the chairman of ILEA's further and higher education sub-committee, Mrs. Janey Rees. She said: Although the college is undoubtedly overcrowded, the revenue implications of this college, plus the rest of our further and higher education building programme, were too great. The outcome of this decision has been extremely serious for the morale of the college. A building designed to meet the needs of the equivalent of 650 full-time students is now stretched to cater for the equivalent of over 900 full-time students.

The stresses and strains which are unavoidable in that degree of overcrowding may be acceptable on a short-term basis if a new building is known to be on the way. They become quite intolerable if there is no sign of relief on the horizon. Conditions are difficult, both for staff and students. Classrooms are overcrowded 1133 and staff have insufficient space for marking and preparation. Shared facilities, like the canteen, are so overwhelmed by sheer numbers that it is impossible for them to provide their former efficient service. Those having to use the temporary classrooms over a mile away at Woolwich Dockyard suffer all the problems of time wasted on travel and inadequate on-site facilities.

The most serious result of the delay in providing extra accommodation is the extent to which this prevents the college from fulfilling its proper role in the local community. Motor vehicle work is a classic example. The present motor vehicle workshop was built for first-year students only, from a design produced in 1959. After their first year at the college, students went on to complete their course at Woolwich Polytechnic. At that time four classes a week were using the workshop.

At short notice, the college was asked to take over all the motor vehicle craft and technician courses, so that there are today at least 22 classes a week using the same small workshop. It is used almost without a break from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. There is also considerable pressure from local employers, particularly the Department of the Environment and the Ministry of Defence, as well as local authorities, to provide extra courses related to commercial vehicle repair and maintenance. This demand simply cannot be met without additional accommodation.

There are other demands which the college cannot meet in its present cramped conditions. At the start of the current session, it was overwhelmed with students seeking part-time day-release courses for the Certificate of Office Studies. Some of these young people simply had to be turned away.

The Training Services Agency has been pressing the college to provide both pre-TOPS and extra TOPS courses to cater for those needing retraining or wishing to acquire skills. This is a particularly sensitive issue in an area like Woolwich, which has suffered a substantial loss of traditional industries over the past 15 years and has been left with a continuing unemployment problem. Yet lack of accommodation has prevented the college from responding.

1134 Pressure on space has also meant that the college has been able to do nothing to help unemployed school leavers in its area, of whom there are likely to be a substantial number during the next few weeks, I am sad to say. The college would have liked to provide more school link courses to introduce young people to further and higher education during their fifth year at secondary school. Here, too, as in the development of education for the whole community, the lack of adequate accommodation is holding back the college's attempts to play its proper rôle.

In the face of these difficulties and against the background of uncertainty about the provision of the phase two building, the governors have looked at two other ways of tackling the accommodation problem. One is by using a simple prefabricated building to provide much-needed extra space for motor vehicle work. The other method is an attempt to provide a small nursery to enable the college to meet the demands from young mothers in its area to be able to take courses while their children are being cared for in the nursery. A nursery subcommittee, supported by the governors, has already raised several hundred pounds towards the cost of the project. Here again, what is being sought is not an elaborate structure but a simple hut with basic facilities.

I appreciate that both those projects, though modest in themselves, have to compete for funds from an already overstretched ILEA minor works programme. I understand that they, together with the new building, will be considered by the ILEA sub-committee later this month with a view to deciding what goes into the 1977–78 building programme. I believe that there will be strong officer support for giving the new building top priority.

I should make clear, however, that the phase two building and the other two schemes I have mentioned are in no sense alternatives. Whether or not the college has its new building, it will still need extra motor vehicle workshops. I am sure my hon. Friend will accept that the nursery project would stand in its own right. Conversely, the provision of the workshop and the nursery would in no way reduce the need for the new building.

1135 However, it in the present difficult financial conditions a value judgment has to be made, I believe that many of my colleagues on the governing body would agree that the new building should have the priority, simply because if it is not soon started there will be real fears about how long the college might have to wait for it.

I appreciate that the final word will lie with the Department and I stress that I and my fellow governors understand the difficulty of asking for more public expenditure at a time when the shadow of substantial cuts looms over us all. Nevertheless, Ministers have frequently pointed out that what is needed in the present situation is a sensible definition of priorities rather than sweeping across-the-board cuts.

Of course, there is the temptation for all of us to regard our own constituency projects or our particular pet schemes as top priority. But Woolwich College is a genuine priority. The extra accommodation sought would do no more than enable the college to fulfil the role set for it by the education authority.

The college serves one of the few parts of inner London where the population is rising and not falling and it will be the main further and higher education centre for the people of Thamesmead, who are likely to number more than 50,000 before the end of the century.

Above all, the college provides the sort of industrial and commercial skills on which to a large extent depends the success of the Government's economic strategy and, indeed, the future of the nation. For all these reasons, I ask my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary to ensure that the building of the Woolwich College extension receives the maximum sympathy from her Department and the highest possible priority.

§ The Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science (Miss Margaret Jackson)

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Woolwich, East (Mr. Cartwright) for the full account he has given of the difficulties he has experienced in Woolwich College because of the overcrowded facilities. Those difficulties are acknowledged, but I should make clear the limits of my Department's responsibilities.

1136 Ninety-five per cent. of the public expenditure on schools and on higher and further education in the public sector in England and Wales is the responsibility of local authorities, even though the central Government provides a large share of the resources through the rate support grant. My right hon. Friend is responsible for policies nationally, but for the most part decisions about actual spending on education are taken by local authorities. They decide both the overall level of resources to be made available locally for education and the priorities within that amount. It is thus their responsibility, among other things, to initiate plans for capital investment.

The Government exercise control over the total level of capital expenditure in further education. This is done by building programmes drawn up by my Department in response to bids from local education authorities. The inclusion of a project such as this in the programme represents an allocation of resources to that project within the total level of expenditure agreed by the Government, and agreement to loan sanction facilities for these projects is then subject to approval by my right hon. Friend. That is normally given to projects when they are in the building programme and during the final planning stages. Nevertheless, the power that the Department has should not obscure the fact that it is the local authority which initiates plans for new buildings.

In this case it is accepted by both the Department and ILEA that there is overcrowding at Woolwich. It seems that existing premises are being used extensively and that use is made of additional rented accommodation. Both the Department and ILEA have been aware for some time of this problem.

An attempt to cater for the anticipated increased demand was considered by ILEA as long ago as 1968 and a plan to build a new college of further education for the centre of the Thamesmead development were put forward, but later this plan was changed to a plan for a single college serving both Woolwich and Thamesmead, with a proposed extension to Woolwich College, to which my hon. Friend referred.

In September 1972 my Department agreed to include the project for this extension in a provisional list of further 1137 education building, thus indicating that preliminary work by the authority could proceed—work such as securing a site, obtaining outline planning permission and preparing an architect's brief. At that time approval in principle was the first stage of a three-year planning cycle, and, as my hon. Friend said, this indicates a terminal date of 1975–76. But it is not possible to maintain the three-year planning cycle for the building programme, and now we invite bids from local authorities each year for projects over £25,000 for inclusion in the following year's major building starts programme for higher and further education.

Although I believe that preliminary planning work has continued on this project, my Department has not since 1972 been asked by ILEA to include the project in a starts programme. The 1976–77 further education programme has already been issued and bids from local education authorities for the year start- 1138 ing 1st April 1977 were requested on 11th June. We expect to receive responses to this request for consideration during July.

I understand that Woolwich College has received assurances from ILEA that its needs will be very carefully considered when the list of possible bids is being drawn up. As I have indicated, however, this is a matter for the authority. My hon. Friend mentioned that the final word on eventual approval is for the Department, but the initiation, the request for the project and for the resources, is for the local authority. However, I assure my hon. Friend that if ILEA submits a proposal for this project we shall take full account of the points he has made in assessing its priority.