Project Outline

The College is a community-owned building offering workshop, conference, meeting and learning facilities to the local community.

Our ambition is to provide opportunities for local people to develop the skills needed for jobs in the renewable energy and green economies, including in food production and processing, and natural building.

Todmorden Town Deal funding will enable much-needed improvements to the spaces and facilities for the community to use. Making the building more energy efficient is our most important goal given the current energy price situation.

What It Will Achieve

• More energy efficient through insulation, glazing improvements, and installation of renewable energy systems
• Better internal environment including reception area and refurbishment of meeting rooms
• Create a new mini co-working and hot-desking space
• Better sound and lighting in the main hall
• State-of-the-art community kitchen and food learning space through refurbishing the old ‘cookery classroom’
• Improved appearance and air quality through a green wall of plants and vegetation on the main road facade
• Better safety and security through upgrades to fire safety, intruder alarms, CCTV, car park
• Better disabled access within the building and a new ‘Changing Places’ facility

Progress So Far

Our Full Business Case has been approved by government.

This sets out how funding will cover the costs of improvements to the College.

We are working with building engineers and architects to plan the most effective and environmentally friendly way of preventing heat loss from the building.

Achieving this is essential to the long-term future of the College.

The Next Steps

We are now busy with:

• Detailed technical design work for the building improvements to be undertaken
• Tendering – getting quotes to ensure we get the best value for money before work begins
• Appointing contractors we want to work with
• Starting work on the building – improvements are already visible.