STAFF at an East Lancashire college are awaiting news of a bid for cash help towards a £1million project to build a multi-media centre next year.

St Mary's College, Shear Brow, Blackburn, teamed up with Hope University College last year to offer degree and post graduate certificate courses at St Mary's.

The partnership has brought other benefits to the sixth form college, which caters for around 900 16-19 year olds and 200 adult learners.

"With Hope's support we have been able to put together a funding package to take to the Further Education Funding Council in our bid for a new multi-media centre," principal Michael Finley told the audience at the college's annual award night yesterday.

It is hoped the FEFC will contribute up to 35 per cent, or £350,000, of the cost.

Mr Finley said the move to offer degree and post graduate courses had been an outstanding success.

The links with Hope had also benefited St Mary's "partner" schools with which it is linked and outreach work with local Catholic high and primary schools. Government league tables placed St Mary's in the top ten per cent of all further education colleges in the country.

Mr Finley praised pupils and staff for their hard work, both in college and in the community.

"This has been our most successful year in terms of results but we are not complacent and we are ready to meet future challenges," he concluded.

Picture: Front, from left, the Rev Clive Birch (Provincial of the Marist Order), Alastair Eccles receiving the Kingfisher Partnership Award for Business Studies, and Linsey Cole. Back, Andrew Mallison, college principal Michael Finley, and James Riley