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ROBERT Key has for a long time shown great interest in Salisbury College, especially in the vocational trades section.

He realises the importance of young people leaving school with a few qualifications as they make their the entrance into adult life.

He has also supported me in the past in my fears that things have not been right at the college over the past few years.

Indeed, this newspaper printed my letters on various subjects appertaining to the closure of the disabled unit, losing the northern schools programme, which introduced construction skills to youngsters and gave them encouragement for their future, and the loss of so many excellent staff.

Many of the flagship departments have now been reduced to a shadow of what they were and indeed what they could still yet be.

Some, like the national assessment centre for double glazing, surveying, planning and management are gone forever.

The introduction of new management styles, where heads of departments did not need any knowledge or qualifications in the subjects their teams led, did not help the cause one bit, it was like a learner driver driving a Maserati.

The present location of the college sits on a prime site that is worth a lot of money to a developer, but is the new site for the college ever going to be able to house everything that the present one does?

It will not have the height, as there is a restriction here as well, and it certainly does not have the ground space.

The long-missed opportunity of not buying Tidworth college at a mere £2.5 million, already fitted out for most of the vocational trades, was tragic, as while some would have to get there via Salisbury, it had an excellent market for Andover and HM Forces and the south of the county.

It also had the land to expand it in the future.

As far as I know neither Andover College nor Sparsholt teach construction.

Brockenhurst has just started and are expanding that area, as are most other colleges, as they know that is where the future lies.

So Mr Key's proposals sound good to me. In his defence, his heart is there to give our young people hope, but he has not always, in my opinion, been told the full story by the College's board or the learning and skills department.

I am still waiting for contact from the chairman that I was promised 18 months ago.

The learning and skills department told me that they backed the principal in her closure of the disabled learners unit.

This was in complete disregard to the government's proposals at the time too.

So good luck, Robert, everyone loves a winner and our youngsters will owe you a debt of gratitude if it comes off, as none of the present proposals for the college make sense.

JOHN D WIGGLESWORTH, Durrington

11:04am Thursday 29th November 2007

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