NORTHWICH councillors have hit out at Warrington and Vale Royal College’s decision to close its longstanding Hartford campus, claiming to have been misled over its future.

The news was announced last week that the majority of the Hartford campus will close from September, one year after the merging of Mid Cheshire College with Warrington Collegiate.

The college cited the campus being ‘seriously under-utilised’ as the reason.

However, Northwich councillors Paul Dolan and Sam Naylor say the college continued to give them reassurances.

Cllr Dolan said: “The news that the Hartford college campus is to effectively close this summer is nothing short of a hammer blow to the Northwich area.

“In the Guardian in November my colleague, Cllr Sam Naylor, and myself called on the new owners of the former Mid Cheshire College, Warrington and Vale Royal College, to come straight on their future plans for the campus, amidst stories of courses being withdrawn or re-located to Warrington.

“The College responded with re-assurances, even claiming 33 extra courses were being added at Hartford. Indeed this line continued right up to last week's shock announcement.”

Cllr Naylor added: “I met with the principal a few months back and she said there were issues but never gave the impression that this was going to happen. I’m a bit gob smacked because I thought I was being kept in the loop.”

A spokesman for the college said: “The volume of courses offered at Hartford campus in 2016/17 compared to 2017/18 increased by 33 - this number is subject to recruitment and has not been discussed as part of the plans for Hartford campus in 2018/19.”