BOSSES at Gloucestershire College have retreated behind a veil of silence after Chancellor Phil Hammond failed to wave his magic wand in their direction during his autumn statement last week.

The college was pinning its hopes on Mr Hammond allocating money to allow the college to relocate from Five Acres to a site on Cinderford’s Northern Quarter redevelopment zone.

When this failed to materialise the college put out a brief statement that casts doubt on whether the college can fund the move but have failed to answer further calls and enquiries.

The proposed college is one of the key elements in the £100m Cinderford Northern Quarter Regeneration Project, which would also see a hotel, 195 homes and up to 18,800sqm of employment space at the Northern Quarter.

If, for any reason, the college is unable to fund the new campus, the whole project could be thrown into doubt.

Peter White, vice principal at the college said this week: "We hope that in the days following the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, that we will be able to secure the final elements of the funding required to progress with the new Forest of Dean Campus in Cinderford’s Northern Quarter.

“The outcome won’t be immediately clear, but if we are successful in securing the funding, work will begin in the coming months and we’d hope that a new Forest of Dean Campus, which will be built and ready to welcome students in September 2018."

This contrasts with the more upbeat statement Principal Matthew Burgess gave in the run up to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.

He said: “After this date we will be able to confirm our timeline and funding for the Northern Quarter project, however it remains our intention to welcome students to our new Forest of Dean Campus in September 2018.”

However, the shift in emphasis from ‘we will be able to confirm our timeline and funding...’ to ‘If we are successful in securing the funding...’ indicates that the proposed new college is no longer the certainty it was once claimed to be.