PART of Rolle College will not be purchased by the County Council for use as a post 16 college.

PART of Rolle College will not be purchased by the County Council for use as a post 16 college.

Members of Devon County Council's Scrutiny Committee today (Friday) voted 10-3 to uphold a previous decision in September not to pursue the purchase of the Douglas Avenue site.

The previous Lib Dem administration had pledged �2 million to buy part of the site to cope with the overspill from the community college and to host adult and vocational training courses.

A central plank of the argument to buy the site came from Community college governors.

They predict that on current growth with the school leaving age increasing to 19, student sixth form numbers could swell by 38 per cent to over 850.

But Council leader John Hart said those figures were 'exaggerated' and he produced during the meeting, another set of statistics that he said showed that student numbers were, if anything, going down.

"I cannot conceive of 800 students at unless you close down every together six form in the area.

"(Rolle College)...is simply not a top priority for post 16 education in Exmouth.

"There is no money for capital bills in the budget art the moment.

"We are not going to spend money on something that is not needed.