NEW College's £11 million campus is well under way.

The three floor building will open in December and will replace the two crumbling buildings on the Queen's Drive campus.

The space age silver and blue outside of the building is now almost complete.

It will be good news for residents of the Parks estate because a new access road direct from Queen's Drive will eliminate the rat run in Helston Road.

The new campus, designed by Charterhouse Partnership and constructed by Pearce, will house a state of the art theatre and the ability to have at least four internet enabled computers in every classroom.

Principal Graham Taylor said: "We are all looking forward to the move. It's not unusual for schools or colleges to build an extension but to build a whole new college is a very major event.

"There will be a single big refectory instead of the two we have at the moment and a two floor library with 60 computers that people can book time on.

"In the day, we have 1,600 students who are mostly aged 16 to 19 and studying A-Levels but at night we become a centre of adult education with more than 8,000 adults taking courses up to NVQ level 5 for many different reasons.

"We believe the new building will make us more attractive to both groups of students."

The college hopes its new state of the art 300 seat theatre will be available for travelling companies and local groups to hire, filling the gap between the intimate Art Centre in Old Town and the large scale Wyvern Theatre.

Councillor Chris Eley (Lab), a Walcot councillor and former lead member for education said: "It is a very positive development for the college and I am pleased to see it is progressing so well.

"The government is shortly to release a green paper on keeping 14 to 19-year-olds in education so it is great to see such an important development in that area in Swindon.

"And the new access road will be a big help to residents, cutting the rat run of traffic and pupils going into the college every day."

www.newcollege.co.uk