WEST Oxfordshire District Council will find out in the next few days if it can help bail out Abingdon and Witney College’s stalled £30m campus redevelopment.

The revamp of the college’s Witney campus was put on hold by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) two weeks ago along with 78 other projects across England because of the economic downturn.

In a letter to the LSC last week, council leader Barry Norton asked whether the district council could help by investing in the project.

Yesterday, a spokesman for the LSC said a response had been drafted to Mr Norton’s letter, and the council would get the letter within a week.

He added: “Until that has been received we feel it unfair to comment.”

Mr Norton said West Oxfordshire District Council was interested in helping because it had reserves of about £60m that it needed to invest.

He added: “If this is something that we could do and we could guarantee a good return then it would be good on two fronts.

“Firstly it allows us to make a good investment, and secondly we would be investing in something that benefits the community.”

Mr Norton added: “We still remain hopeful of persuading the Government to meet its promise and fund the redevelopment of the Witney campus,” he said.

“But if nothing could move beyond that, then we would be willing to see what we can do to help.

“It would have to be done on the terms that are laid out to us as a local authority by the Government. This is not just money that we could give away as a grant.”

Mr Norton added that no amount had yet been discussed with the college .

As reported in the Oxford Mail, Mark Haysom the chief executive of the LSC, has resigned.

In a statement he said: “It is with huge regret that I have reached the conclusion that, because of the well-publicised difficulties with the programme, I should now announce that I am stepping down from my role as chief executive."

His resignation comes before the findings of a Government review into the funding debacle, due to be published in the next week.

Mr Haysom added: “"I don't need to wait for that report to be published before making my decision because it will, I'm sure, confirm what I now know – that there have been failures in the way that the LSC has managed the programme.”

Steve Billcliffe, head of development at the Witney campus, said he regretted to hear that Mr Haysom had resigned.

He added: “It’s quite a shock that’s for sure. The only thing that I would want to say is that Mark did a really good job for further education and raising its profile to get more funding.”

“It’s a misfortune what has happened. No one would want to put the blame on one person.”

witney@oxfordmail.co.uk