PLANS to revamp Oxford and Cherwell Valley College’s campuses across the county are in limbo following a collapse in Government funding.

Projects worth £120m at Oxpens, in central Oxford, at Blackbird Leys and in Banbury, could be affected as the Learning & Skills Council struggles to find the money to fund 79 projects across the country.

Last month, a £30m redevelopment of Witney & Abingdon College’s campus in Holloway Road, Witney, was halted by the crisis.

Phil Waddup, Oxford and Cherwell Valley College’s capital project director, said: “We had been right through the application process and were working on detailed designs.

“We thought it was all systems go. Four years’ planning has gone into this.

“If we don’t get this money we will not have these new innovative buildings. We need to replace the ageing buildings, but the Oxpens scheme is also central to the whole West End redevelopment.

“We see this project as keeping this part of Oxford alive.

“Now we are in limbo until we hear whether the money is going to be forthcoming. We have to remain optimistic.”

The college planned to spend £60m on the Oxpens site and £20m to spruce up its Blackbird Leys campus, in Cuddesdon Way, including a centre for sports studies, due to be finished by 2011.

It also wanted to spend £40m to reconstruct the Banbury campus, in Broughton Road, with the three-phase plan making it one of the largest-ever developments by a further education college.

Colleges were actively encouraged by the LSC to apply for funding to create world-class facilities.

LSC chairman Chris Banks said: “There have been major issues with the management of the college capital programme and an expanding pipeline of projects waiting for final approval.”

He said problems arose when demand started to outstrip available funds and that the LSC was developing new “needs-based criteria” and process to allocate capital funding.

As the Oxford Mail reported yesterday, a report to the Government, prepared by Sir Andrew Foster, condemned the LSC’s handling of plans to modernise colleges across the country.

Abingdon & Witney College principal Teresa Kelly said: “People in west Oxfordshire are still waiting to hear from the LSC when their new college building can go ahead.

“Regardless of where the blame lies for the funding fiasco, we remain in a position where we have no time-scale. We’re already at least six months behind.”

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