K College has been granted approval to build a multi million pound new campus with a striking corner rotunda in Ashford town centre.

Councillors at Ashford Borough Council’s planning committee meeting on Wednesday, September 21, 2011, gave K College permission to build on its old site on Elwick Road, which has been out of use for a number of years.

Addressing the meeting, Principal of K College, Bill Fearon, said: ‘The Council's approval will allow the College to relocate to where it needs to be, in the heart of the town.

‘We are going to invest around £25 million of our own money into building a state of the art flagship learning centre in Ashford, and the Elwick Road site provides a highly visible profile in a Gateway location to the town. It has the advantage of easy access to the international railway station, bus services and motorway.’

‘Locating K College here is very beneficial for K College and Ashford, it will allow extensive new opportunities for up-skilling and leisure courses within the local community, provide firm links with Ashford's business community, and will substantially increase foot-fall in the town centre.’

‘I am grateful for the firm support of Ashford Borough Council and, as a result, we can plan for our new building being available in 2013.’



Architects considered the relationship of the site to the Ashford Conservation area, the context of the Memorial Gardens, access to the site, links to the town centre and station, as well as the change of levels across the site, when drawing up the design.

The campus will provide a range of vocational courses tailored to the needs of local businesses from GCSE to Degree level and will offer a range of Apprentice programmes, opportunities for European students due to the excellent links provided by Ashford International Station, public access to facilities including the hair and beauty salon and café, significant improvements to the visual appearance of the site by removing redundant buildings (listen to Bill Fearon talking about this here) and new landscaping on the corner of Elwick Road and Station Road.

The new college entrance will be located at the corner of Elwick Road and Station Road, with vertical fins, horizontal solar shading, and western red cedar cladding to the underside. Ken Watson, director, at HNW Architects said: ‘The scheme will create an iconic building of truly civic quality on this key gateway site.’

K College governors put forward plans for a brand new building on this site following an independent review of all the property owned by the former South and West Kent Colleges.

K College will secure from a variety of sources, including the sale of its existing Jemmett Road campus for redevelopment, which was also approved by councilors at the meeting.

The new campus will have potential for further development subject to the demands of employers and the Ashford community.

For further information – Sandy Fleming, PR and Media Relations, K College, on 0791 7765811