SALISBURY College decided to relinquish its lease on Tidworth College after it found it was losing money running the centre.

The college's newly- appointed principal, Gill Thompson, told concerned members of Tidworth's community area partnership that the college had given the building's owner, the Royal British Legion, two years' notice of its intention to withdraw from the lease. She acknowledged the news was very disappointing.

"What we would like to do now is work through how we can play an effective role in meeting the educational and training needs of the local community," she said.

Asked by David Wildeman, of the chamber of commerce, about the viability of the facility, she said: "When we did the figures we found we were losing money. "It is a fantastic building but is too much for a single institution to sustain."

But she pledged that Salisbury College would like to maintain a presence in the Tidworth building, which was opened by the Queen amid high hopes in the mid 1990s.

The land on which the college is situated is the property of the Ministry of Defence and the principal mentioned a number of restrictive covenants that existed on building and might restrict its potential.

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