IT is difficult to understand why such drastic measures had to be taken at Bilston. Governors and management were working closely with the funding council, a recovery plan was in place, and restructuring was well under way months before the inspection that led to closure.
The funding council’s heavy-handed actions appear to have led to far fewer students being enrolled in the merged cllege than in the two individual colleges. This has occurred at much greater cost to the taxpayer. The number of courses has been reduced for the Bilston community while hundreds of redundancies have occurred in an area that already has high unemployment.
Sim Wignall
(former assistant principal,
Bilston Community College)
17 Finchfield Hill
Wolverhampton
