PROGRESS is being made in finding a solution to save a county college from closure.

The management of Malvern Hills College has been holding regular meetings with a group of local councillors, academics and business figures to try and prevent the planned 2021 closure of the college, announced last month by WCG.

Since then, chairman of the Malvern Hills College SOS Task Group, Beverley Nielsen and Cllr Tom Wells, founder of the Task Group, met with Angela Joyce, CEO and deputy principal of WCG, Roger Bevan on December 14 to discuss possible solutions.

Cllr Nielsen said: "We have developed a good working dialogue with Angela Joyce and her team, including Roger Bevan.

"We believe there is a potential solution and we are currently exploring this with them.

"We were greatly impressed to visit the Malvern Hills College building this week, being shown around by Angela Joyce and Roger Bevan.

READ MORE: Malvern Hills College to close permanently in 2021

"It is an inspiring place full of possibilities for the future.

"Having walked around the Malvern Hills College premises earlier this week we can see that WCG have taken care of this special building and recognise this as an asset for our community.

"They have however been unable to find a model that works for them given their wider range of educational interests.

"We see an opportunity for something that is built from our grass roots upwards and it is that which we are pursuing in our discussions."

Angela Joyce, CEO, WCG said: "We have said from the outset that we would be very happy to see arts provision continue in Malvern and would be talking to stakeholders and interested parties to explore the possibility of that happening.

"We are hopeful that the future of the College or its courses can be secured before next September and we are pleased to be working with the Task Group, led by the District Councillors, to review possible options."

READ MORE: Group set up to try and save Malvern Hills College

Meanwhile, the college group hit back at claims by West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin, who said the group was asking too high a price to take on the building.

Mrs Baldwin said the group was holding out for £1 million for the purchase of the college, but in response, the group said this was not the case.

A spokesman for WCG, said: "In response to Harriett’s claims around the value of the site – we have not appointed a valuation surveyor, so any figure is, at this stage, purely speculation. Simply, there is no “price-tag”.

"We were also taken aback by remarks about the marketing of courses at Malvern as we spend more per head on marketing the college’s courses than we do at any of our other colleges.

"This has been in our attempt to improve the College’s financial indicators since merger in 2016.

"We are glad that the issue of FE funding from Government is now finally on Harriett’s radar and that she is taking that up at national level, something which will be very much welcomed by our education sector which has been chronically under-funded for decade.

READ MORE: College group hits back at Harriett Baldwin's criticism of closure

"We also hope that Harriett will be supportive of the courses aimed at young people wishing to pursue a career in the digital economy based at the Science Park.

"We have in the past invited her to visit, and hope that she might now accept, to learn more about the offer.

“In a perfect world we would not be exiting this site, and are only doing so after much deliberation and exploration of our options prompted by the effects of a global pandemic and other factors such as lack of funding.

"But this is not a perfect world, and we are in very turbulent times, so therefore we would like to think that all parties could work collaboratively for as good an outcome as possible for the community we are here to serve."

The group was responding to Mrs Baldwin who said: "I’m disappointed that the Warwickshire College Group has attached a huge price tag for the site – especially as, ever since it inherited the site, the group does not seem to have been especially proactive in marketing the courses.

"I’ve been told by the Further Education Commissioner that the group was already under scrutiny because of its extensive debts and I am alarmed at the way it is trying to sell off an historic local asset to fix its balance sheet."