STAFF at Lancaster's Adult College face an uncertain future after a major slash in government funds totalling £320,000 was announced this week. The cutbacks mean redundancies for both full and part-time teachers and education bosses are already tightening their belts by axing a substantial number of courses for the Easter term. College principal Peter Garrod, said it was too early to say at this stage how many jobs would have to go.

He told the Citizen: "It's very disappointing, we've achieved a good Ofsted report, we've been encouraged to grow and now we're being penalised for it. The staff are extremely upset by the news but we'll have to wait until our full budget is confirmed in April to see how many redundancies there will be."

The cuts come from the college's main source of funding, the Further Education Funding Council, which has decided to stop giving franchise grants to the Adult College to work in collaboration with the Lancaster and Morecambe College.

David Roddam, principal of the Lancaster and Morecambe College, said the cuts would also stifle their plans for future expansion.

He said: "We are a lot bigger institution than the Adult College and therefore we can absorb the reductions. But we are not getting as much money as we hoped at the moment and it will affect our planned growth."

To soften the blow Lancashire County Council has withdrawn planned cuts of £41,000 destined for the Adult College from their adult education budget.

Other projects and organisations like those at Lancaster University and St Martin's College will face grant reductions instead.

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