April, Nick and Norman visit City College Norwich

5.38.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 26th Jun 2009

Norman, Nick and April heard about the College's funding problems from its Principal

April Pond was yesterday joined by Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg and North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb for a visit to City College Norwich, Ipswich Road Campus.

They toured the college to see the work of vocational students in the Hospitality Management and Catering school and the Construction workshops.

April, Nick and Norman were met by Dick Palmer, Principal and Chief Executive of City College Norwich, who discussed with them their plans for modernising the campus which has had a major set back as Learning and Skills Council (LSC) funding from the government that was promised has been mismanaged and may now not materialise.

The LSC announced on 27 January 2009 that it would be deferring formal approval of redevelopment projects for a period of 3 months, as demand for capital funding is now outstripping the 'Building Colleges for the Future budget'.

Sir Andrew Foster has been asked by the Government to conduct an independent inquiry into how this situation arose, with many colleges, like City College Norwich, having now reached an advanced stage of planning and invested considerable sums to get this far.