Blackpool eyesore makes way for campus complex

A new £100m campus for Blackpool and The Fylde College is to be created on a 10-acre site next door to Blackpool Football Club.

The land – bordered by Rigby Road, Seasiders Way, Central Drive and Bloomfield Road, is also currently home to The Mecca dance hall eyesore, which will be cleared to make way for the education base.

It is hoped that the project, which is being backed by Blackpool Council, will help reverse the resort's "brain drain".

Blackpool Council will buy the old Mecca site on Central Drive for an undisclosed sum through ReBlackpool regeneration funds.

A bid for cash from the Learning and Skills Council to fund classrooms, dining, and administration areas, is now being prepared.

A leisure facility on the site which currently houses Premier Bowl, a karting track, and some retail units will also be demolished, while the college's 27-acre Ashfield Road campus will be sold off.

The new campus is expected to be completed by 2012.