BLACKBURN College has been given planning permission to knock down its former motor vehicle building and The Gateway administrative block to create 134 additional parking spaces.

The double demolition will free up space on Nab Lane and Montague Street to increase the number of spaces on the campus to its original total.

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Previous car parking areas were decommissioned to make way for the construction of the college’s £5.6 million Regional Automotive Technology Hub and the £13.5 million Blackburn Sports and Leisure Centre built in partnership with the borough council.

The new motor centre was opened in August last year by the town’s superbike champion Carl Fogarty, later winner of I’m a Celebrity... Get me Out of Here 2014.

The leisure centre was opened in March by double Olympic Gold medallist Rebecca Adlington, Britain’s most successful swimmer, who won the 400 and 800 metre freestyle events at the 2008 Beijing games. The centre, which opened in in March replacing the 29-year-old Waves water fun centre. includes a six-lane, 25-metre swimming pool, two water slides, a children’s water fun zone, a dance and aerobics room, a spinning studio, a gym and two sports halls.

The two-storey RATH on Feilden Street features automotive workshops, auto electrics, a paint workshop, two computer labs, an MOT lane, a diagnostic lab, and five classrooms.

Meanwhile the College’s ‘Creative Arts students have commandeered the disused former motor vehicle workshops before demolition begins to create their Art and Design degree show, which opened on Wednesday,and runs until Friday 5 June.

Joanna Sperryn-Jones, Programme Leader, said the students had done fantastically well to pull off a great show.

She said: “Quite a few of the students have responded particularly well to the space by making installations on quite a big scale. I’m extremely proud of them.”

The Art and Design degree show provides a forum for top creative businesses to reach out to new talent and future employees as many University Centre graduates meet their future employers there.