OKEHAMPTON College is in line for a major redevelopment to meet the large rise in pupil numbers in the next five years.

Around £4-million will be split between Okehampton and Tavistock Colleges to provide extra classrooms and specialist accommodation.

The redevelopment plans were approved as part of Devon County Council's £80-million three-year capital programme for schools on Tuesday and work is due to start in April 2002.

Three months into his job as principal of Okehampton College Christopher Powell said this week the news was 'fantastic'.

'Not only will the college get a new technology block but facilities for sixth form, art, staff and administration will improve and there will be more general classroom accommodation,' said Mr Powell.

'This is a boost for everybody but the ones who will benefit most are the children.

'Most of the spade-work for the redevelopment plan was already done before I arrived, but over the last couple of months I have been working with officers from the education authority to put together a plan which will enable us to cater for 300 more pupils,' he said.

Without any new houses being built — and there are 800 planned over the next ten years — the school population is set to increase by at least 150 in the next couple of years.

Mr Powell said that in the past the allocation of funding to schools had not necessarily been fair and this latest announcement was going someway towards redressing the balance.

'Some schools in Devon look like hotels — the standard of their buildings is so fantastic — what we have is shabby by comparison.'

It is hoped that work will be completed at the college by September 2002 and Mr Powell said there was a real commitment by officers from the county council to make things happen quickly. 'This time we are going to have a big say in what is built because the LEA is now much more responsive to the needs of the school,' added Mr Powell.

'The technology block, which will link to the rest of the school, will allow us the opportunity to really give a subject area, which is already quite successful, a major boost.'

He added that extra money would be made available from the college budget to give the whole site some tender loving care and an ongoing programme of maintenance.

Spokesman for Devon County Council David Hutchings said funding had been geared towards areas where the population was increasing.

'Okehampton is one of the growth areas with a lot of new housing going up,' he said. 'We anticipate that 2,000 extra places will need to be provided in schools across the county by 2004 and this latest funding is part of a package to provide those places.'

West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett said that over the last three years he been pressurising the Government to do something about the deplorable state of many of the schools in his constituency.

'Teachers and pupils have done exceptional work despite these deplorable conditions but I am delighted that at last there has been some good news for Okehampton and other schools in my constituency.

'I would like to pay tribute to the Minister of State responsible, Estelle Morris, who has listened to our case and as a result Devon has just had the highest per capita grant for school buildings in the country.'

Mr Burnett said with a new principal and major funding the college now had everything going for it and one of his next priorities would be to secure funding for a second primary school for Okehampton.

County councillor Colleen Herriman said the county council was delighted to be able to grant the money. She added: 'Local people will be aware that an enormous amount of work has been done on behalf of the college over the last few years to bring this much-needed funding to fruition.

'I'm very pleased Okehampton can move forward and face the future with the new building to accommodate the expansion in numbers.'