BUILDERS are halfway through completing a £14million new college campus which will be an “outstanding” community asset.

The new Barnet and Southgate College Colindale Skills Centre, in Grahame Park, celebrated a significant milestone in the project with a ‘topping out’ ceremony.

This means building compan Osborne have reachedthe highest point of the new build.

It will be open in September 2016, replacing the existing Grahame Park campus in Grahame Park Way.

It was marked with an event attended by Barnet mayor Councillor Mark Shooter, Hendon MP Matthew Offord, college staff and other dignitaries.

David Byrne, principal of Barnet and Southgate College said: “Today’s ceremony marks an important milestone to us opening the doors to our brand new Colindale campus in September 2016.

“We’re very proud of securing an investment that creates an outstanding College asset in the heart of this major regeneration development. This is great news not only for our students, but for the community as a whole.

“The move may only be a short distance from our old campus, but it’s a world away in terms of the facilities we have and the opportunities it offers for the future of our learners."

The new college will include carpentry, joinery, plastering, wall and floor tiling and plumbing courses as well as a training hair salon which will be open to the public.

It will also include a new library.

Councillor Daniel Thomas, chairman of Barnet Council's assets, regeneration and growth committee, said: “The new campus will form an important focal point in the new re-generation scheme on Grahame Park.

“I am delighted to see work really progressing on the campus which will offer fantastic training and employment opportunities to residents from all over the borough.

“The new Colindale campus offers contemporary educational facilities within a new flexible purpose-built building that showcases education and gives the College a brand new identity in the local area.”

It forms part of a £550million plan to re-generate the wider Grahame Park area, including the building of approximately 2,000 new homes.