THE entrance to St Mary’s College in Blackburn is set to have a £400,000 facelift to reinvigorate the 50-year-old structure.

A plan to refurbish the façade facing on to Shear Brow has been given the green light by Blackburn with Darwen Council.

The side of the college will get a dramatic make over with brightly-coloured new cladding set to replace the current exterior fittings.

The college has been on the site since the middle of the 1920’s, with the majority of the buildings fronting Shear Brow being built during the 1960’s.

The money has been secured through the Education Funding Agency’s Condition Improvement Fund.

It’s the fifth year in a row that the college has been granted funding from the agency with a total of £700,000 being awarded this year for a range of projects.

Since 2010 the college has been given £2.2million for projects including refurbishing the strength and conditioning room and for new seats in the dining room.

Jan Gedzielewski, the college’s finance director, said: “We are very lucky to have been given so much funding for the last five years and we are putting it all to good use.

“There will not be any major disruption while this work is being carried out and the buses coming to the college will be unaffected.

“We are keeping the older section to the façade on Shear Brow and hopefully these changes will help to enhance the area.”

Work is due to start at the end of the month and will continue through to March next year.

The college confirmed that the entrance will not be closed for the work and that the only disruption will be to a few members of staff who may have to move their offices for a few weeks.

A spokesman for Cartwright and Gross Chartered Architects, who submitted a statement about the plan to the council, said: “The high-quality glazing/cladding system to be used on the main administration block will emphasise the aspirations of the college as a contemporary forward-thinking establishment keen to attract students.

“The proposed refurbishment provides an opportunity to complete the improvement in the public appearance of the college, using quality materials to create a more appealing and accessible facility.

“The works proposed seek to rationalize the façade to Shear Brow with a limited palette of materials, while in parallel improving the performance of the building fabric.

“Solar shading, thermal and acoustic insulation measures will be greatly improved to the office areas behind this element of the façade thanks to these works.”