FOLLOWING months of consultation Abergavennys only further education college will close its doors for the last time next month.

Coleg Gwent announced that The Hill Education and Conference Centre will close on August 31 to help save just over £1million and secure Coleg Gwents future.

On April 1 Coleg Gwent announced a series of proposals to the way it operates in order to address a significant funding shortfall.

In announcing these proposals the college entered a 90 day consultation period, which came to an end on 29 June.

The Corporation of the college met on July 9 to consider the outcomes of the consultation, and to agree on the next steps in ensuring the college returns to a financially stable position.

Following the announcement hundreds of local residents and users of The Hill came forward to fight the decision.

A public meeting was held as part of the Bryn y Cwm Forum in St Michaels Centre last month where hundreds pledged to fight the decision and dozens questioned principal Howard Burton.

Despite floods of letters, complaints and pleas to the principal the college announced closure this week.

In a statement released to The Chronicle, the college sited, The college received a large amount of correspondence and all of this has been taken into account in coming to its final decisions.

The Hill Education and Conference Centre will close on August 31 and will now enter discussions on its disposal with any third parties. The Regional Welsh for Adults Centre based at The Hill will relocate to Pontypool Campus, not to City of Newport Campus as originally proposed.

The plan to cease A levels at Pontypool will go ahead, but the college has had a series of meetings with Torfaen Borough Council over the future of A level provision in the Borough, and fully supports Torfaens plans.

The original proposals would have led to 74 staff redundancies. Through voluntary redundancies and early retirement, nine staff now face compulsory redundancy, with some redeployment opportunities being discussed.

A spokeswoman for the college said, These plans will achieve savings of just over £1 million in the next academic year.

Coleg Gwent Principal and Chief Executive Howard Burton said, In developing our proposals to make the college financially viable we knew we were putting forward some tough choices. However in the current financial climate we also knew we had to change some of the things we do, including concentrating on our core activity of teaching and learning, making sure we give our learners the best service we could within our financial limits.

I have received a large amount of correspondence about our proposals which clearly demonstrates how important teaching and learning is to the communities we serve.

As a result of the consultation process we have been able to modify some of our proposals, but for the others there arent any financially sensible alternatives. There are still difficult decisions to be made as the funding situation is unlikely to improve in the short to medium term.

I genuinely regret having to make some of the decisions we have come to, but it is the only way we can secure the long term future of the college, and be able to continue to deliver high quality provision to as many learners as possible across the whole of Gwent and to preserve as many of the jobs of our staff as we can.

Monmouth AM Nick Ramsay, who pledged his support to save The Hill said he was saddened by the news.

He said, This is terribly sad news for Abergavenny and potentially the worst development for lifelong learning in Monmouthshire since I became an Assembly Member.

Even at this late stage I will petition the Welsh Assembly Minister for Education to see if it can be saved.

Sadly we have to face the fact that the current Welsh Assembly Government has completely failed to adequately fund further education in Wales.

We hear much talk of the growing funding gap between Wales and England and the closure of The Hill is the clearest sign of that yet.

Chair of Bryn y Cwm Forum Alan Michie said, Naturally we are disappointed because despite our offer to discuss the five options offered at the meeting, the college refused to meet or extend the 90 days notice, given to their staff, in order  to consult with the users or the community.

This is slap in the face of democracy because Coleg Gwent choose to ignore the consultation guidelines issued by the Welsh Assembly Government of placing the Community in the centre on local issues and that although the Assembly Members were aware of the situation they were unable to influence the college.