§ Mr. Cartwrightasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will now make a fuller statement about the position of the Deptford Skillcentre and about the progress of efforts to provide industrial training facilities in the Woolwich area.
§ Mr. GoldingI am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that a meeting was held with planning representatives of the local authorities concerned on 26th August 1976. A revised scheme for developing the Deptford site has now been submitted and will be considered for acceptance in November. Completion of this project cannot be expected before the end of 1979, because of the difficulties of developing the site. The Training Services Agency is therefore making efforts to provide alternative skillcentre training facilities before this date by using existing premises in the area. It is planned that work will commence soon on premises at Kidbrooke which will provide 80 training places by the early spring of 1977; terms have been agreed for premises at Woolwich—where extra building is planned—to provide at least a further hundred training places by the end of 1977. The capacity of the purpose-built skillcentre planned for the Deptford site is 308 places.