A SIXTH form college that withdrew from a town centre redevelopment plan has applied for money to help expand its current site.

Bede College, Billingham, is submitting a bid for Learning and Skills Council cash to enable it to improve and expand its Marsh House site.

It wants to increase the number of students from 550 and hopes to improve the building.

College bosses last month revealed they could not wait any longer for plans to build community facilities on John Whitehead Park, near the town centre.

The college's decision to consolidate at its current site is a setback for the town's traders, left disappointed when Stockton and Billingham College relocated to its Teesdale site in Thornaby.

But, after deciding to withdraw from the town centre's controversial £25m Gateway project, the college has few regrets.

College principal Miriam Stanton said: "We felt that with us operating in competition with other new colleges and being pushed for space, we needed to think about expanding sooner rather than later.

"The town centre Gateway plan was great for us but when we moved in there it would have been set in stone - we could not have expanded in ten or 20 years time.

"One of the main advantages of the existing site is that there is scope for further expansion. It is to that end that we will be applying for money from the Learning and Skills Council."

Billingham Partnership Board chairman Kevin Pitt denied the college's move will place the whole Gateway project in jeopardy.

He said: "It will no doubt be bad news for retailers in the town centre that they are losing all these students.

"But on the other hand some residents were complaining that Bede College's structure would have been three storeys high. With that now cancelled they might be happier."