West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has repeated her call for Warwickshire College Group to come to the table to negotiate a compromise deal which will allow Malvern Hills College to reopen as soon as possible.

Harriett met with the Bransford Trust to hear an update on the progress of negotiations and she agreed to write to the Group’s chairman, Peter Manford, to renew her offer of mediation.

The Trust has made a formal offer to take over the site and return teaching to the historic site but the Leamington Spa-based college management continue to stall on the process.

Harriett said:

“I have kept in close touch with the Bransford Trust through this process and I am fully supportive of their efforts to offer what I consider to be a fair price to take the site over.

“It simply cannot be sensible that a publicly-funded educational establishment like Warwickshire College Group can be allowed to let an old college building fall in to ruin.

“I understand that there are simple sticking points that could easily be resolved with sensible negotiations but the WCG management have so far refused to come to the table.

“I have repeated my offer that an independent mediator should be engaged to allow this deal to move forward and allow WCG to exit from this situation without further damage to its reputation.”