David Davies MP has pledged to CASH (Community Action to save The Hill) that he will help in any way he can to bring back education and community involvement at The Hill College in Abergavenny.

Borderline Voices, a registered charity, whose aim is to promote mental health through the arts, notes that Coleg Gwent's mission statement talks of "working with key stakeholders to develop local partnerships." The college's current stance, says Borderline, "will abandon a chance to be involved with an innovative collaboration leaving the building to rot in the incredibly difficult property market."

Further pledges of support for the campaign by CASH have come from Professor Brooker of Nottingham University and Chair of the Raymond Williams Society.

Coleg Gwent has now arranged for CASH representatives to meet the Principal on 17 February. CASH will be holding a public meeting on Friday 25 February (further details to be announced). It will be addressed by Dr Ta'eed and Derek Tatton of the Raymond Williams Foundation.

A spokesman for Coleg Gwent said: 'The College has an obligation in law and to the whole community to secure best value from any of its assets. Because of the withdrawal from the sale by the purchaser we have to start a process to be able to show we have done that.  As part of that we will have to re-assess all of our options.  Having had an agreement in place to sell at an agreed price we simply could not accept a significantly reduced offer plus a promise of future funds without a due process that demonstrates we would be getting best value.

We have always taken the views of the local community very seriously by meeting with any groups in a position to represent those views and we will continue to do so. 

" We have invited representatives from the Bryn y Cwm Forum to meet with us, and now that CASH has been re-established they have accepted our invitation to meet.  We look forward to hearing those views, and we will do our best to act on them whilst bearing in mind the best interests of the College.

"Since the decision to close the loss-making operation at The Hill, our plan has been to sell the property and grounds in order to re-invest the proceeds back into the College, in order to ensure our Campuses are up to the standards our learners expect and deserve.

"We have no objection to any proposal that keeps The Hill as a training venue, but we must ensure that any transaction provides best value for the College."