THE president of Abergavenny Chamber of Trade, has launched a stinging attack on the management of Coleg Gwent, saying she has been appalled at the way plans for the future of The Hill have been managed.

"I've written to numerous people including Jane Hutt and Howard Burton about the closure and while I've had no reply from Ms Hutt but I have heard from Mr Burton who says in his letter that the decision to close The Hill has not been taken lightly and was being considered long before it was announced that the Assembly funding had been cut,"said Ms Cernoch.

"He also said that the restoration of the funding will have minimal effect on situation at The Hill," she added.

Describing the lengthy at complicated letter as 'poppycock' said she had attended the recent public meeting organised by the Bryn y Cwm Forum and had asked Mr Burton why he had not approached the town's chamber of trade to consider commercial partnerships for the college.

"He told me that was what the 90 consultation period was for, but frankly the consultation period is much to late to be looking at rescue bids and other options. I was incensed at the meeting and appalled at the way things have been handled," said Ms Cernoch.

Asked by Andy Hinksman why people had always been given the impression that The Hill was successful, Ms Cernoch said that the recent meeting had heard that Coleg Gwent had 'apparently' been subsidising the college for many years and that closure had always been on the cards.

"I run a business and if I ran my business like that it wouldn't have been running for 26 years," said Ms Cernoch, proprietor of Standby Secretarial Services in Abergavenny.

"Coleg Gwent needs to employ a director of marketing to look into these option," she added.

Solicitor Hugh Candler said he felt Monmouthshire County Council had played a part in the issue and had been 'completely cynical' in agreeing to lift the restrictive covenant on The Hill, allowing it to potentially be sold on the open market.

"There is talk of rescue plans but it seems that the only people who will benefit from the sale will be MCC because Coleg Gwent won't sell the college for it's full value and the people of Abergavenny will lose a valuable asset," he said.

Members also questioned the apparent land swap deal revealed recently in The Abergavenny Chronicle involving the Usk site proposed as the location of the new MCC headquarters.

"It appears that the only option given to the college's corporation was for closure of The Hill, which is unprofessional and I've been unable to discover who made the first contact in the MCC deal - was it the college or was it the council," said David Haswell.

"It has been announced that the first contact between the two was on April 2 - just after the closure was announced and according to The Chronicle a report was presented to a cabinet meeting in May. That seems very quick to me and we want the truth of who asked for the land swap...who made the first approach," said Mr Haswell.

The management of Coleg Gwent was how vigorously defended by local businesswoman and former college principal Janice Davies who said she was 'uncomfortable' with the tone of the meeting as she was aware that The Hill had been in financial difficulty for a long time.

"When Coleg Gwent took The Hill from Gwent County Council it had been in dire straits and on an annual basis there have been funding cuts," said Mrs Davies.

The focus at the moment is on 14-19 education and adult education which is the priority of The Hill has almost vanished," she said.

"I know that Coleg Gwent has a director of finance and a director of marketing who are both highly qualified and good and their jobs and have been furiously looking for funding. There may be problems in the consultation but we must see this in the context of post 16 education in Wales as a whole," said Mrs Davies.

"If they would keep The Hill going they would," she stressed.

"I feel very uncomfortable at the tone of this meeting because unless you have the knowledge that they haven't been trying to keep this college going it's very unfair to criticise," she added.

"There may be a thriving U3A at The Hill but they do not put investment into the college and this issue is far more complex than the attitude being taken here. This is something that has been almost continuously looked at for the past 15 years," she said.

Ms Cernoch confirmed that according to Mr Burton only 19 students who fell within the 14-19 age range were enlisted at The Hill but insisted that the commercial potential of The Hill had not been adequately explored, something that was supported by other chamber members.

"I'm not criticising Coleg Gwent I am unhappy with the way it's been handled at that seemed to be the unanimous feeling of the Bryn y Cwm Forum meeting," said Ms Cernoch.

"It may be as has now been explained that Coleg Gwent has indeed explored many options but it should have been said at the forum's meeting because I for one would like to have known what efforts had been made," she said.

David Haswell added that he felt The Hill had become expendable because it did not fit the criteria of Coleg Gwent's 'core businesses'.

"The Hill isn't what Coleg Gwent is all about. It was interesting that there had been no debate about staffing, everything is about the site as an asset," he said.

"It seems that The Hill is out on a limb and maybe it needs to go back into the private sector to be successful," added former chamber president Andy Hinksman.