BURNLEY College looks set to expand after it announced plans to erect two buildings.

Director Colin Crowther has lodged an application for a new construction skills centre and a teaching block at the college’s Princess Way campus.

College bosses said the development would provide ‘a high-quality learning environment for all students and members of the community’.

If given the go-ahead, the brickwork and plastering workshop would move into a purpose-built 970 square metre construction skills centre.

The 630 square metre, one-storey teaching block would provide additional teaching and computer space to ‘support growth’ across other subjects.

The teaching block would be designed to allow three floors to be added in the future, which could create an extra 1,800 square metres of teaching space.

In a planning statement, college bosses said the new building would help attract students to the college.

The statement added the project would allow the college to expand its specialist engineering offer and create new, bespoke facilities for construction trades, all supported by good quality, flexible general teaching and IT facilities. The college has around 7,600 students on full-time, part-time, apprenticeship and training courses, most of whom attend classes at its £81million hub in Princess Way.

Development chiefs at Burnley Council have agreed to support the project in principle.

Planning officer Graeme Thorpe said: “It would be a logical space for the college to expand.”