AMBITIOUS multi-million-pound plans to rebuild a Basingstoke college are set to go ahead after the success of a milestone funding bid.

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has agreed to pay for 83 per cent of the £32million bill for the revamp of Queen Mary's College - with the rest to be sourced from the college's own funds.

With outline planning permission already in place, college officials are hopeful the full planning application should be straightforward and that building work can get under way next month.

After receiving the funding news from the LSC, QMC principal Stephen Sheedy told The Gazette: "We are really thrilled.

"We have done about two years' work in preparation for this. The opportunity to rebuild virtually the whole college is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

"I really think the staff and students will get quite an uplift working in buildings with new facilities and equipment. It's like they are being really valued - the students' education matters and they matter."

Mr Sheedy said the success of Everest Comm-unity College, which moved into a new state-of-the-art building in Popley last September, had shown what a difference new surroundings can make.

And, if Basingstoke College of Technology succeeds in its bid for LSC funding later this year, then about £150million could be alloca-ted for new educational buildings in Basingstoke in just a few years.

Mr Sheedy added: "It's one of the unsung things of this Government - that they have made a really serious investment in learning."

The redevelopment of QMC, in Cliddesden Road, would begin with the construction of a new science block.

"Although the current science laboratories have served their purpose, and have been very good, what we need are state-of-the-art facilities," said Mr Sheedy. "The new curriculum means we need more flexible space. Some of the curriculum areas we will be moving in have been taught in facilities that are past their best."

The new science block would also include facilities for people with learning disabilities, including some that would help the college cater better for children on the autistic spectrum.

Mr Sheedy said disruption to the college and its users should be minimal as there is space to build the new science block without altering existing buildings.

Once it is complete, the second phase of redevelopment would create a new teaching block with improved performing arts facilities.

A new library building would be created in the third phase and the remaining buildings would be remodelled in the final phase.

As a result, the college should be able to increase the number of 16 to 18-year-old students it can take from 2,300 to 2,500 once the revamp is complete.