THE head of a trailblazing college has taken early retirement.

Danny Clough has stood down as principal and chief executive of Colchester Institute after 12 years in charge.

The college said he had decided to take early retirement and vice-principal Alison Andreas will take over as acting principal until a head is appointed in the new year.

During Mr Clough’s tenure, the college has expanded to teach 12,000 students a year.

It has become recognised as a specialist in providing vocational education and training.

However, it also hit a financial crisis after a £112 million building project had to be aborted in 2009 when the Learning and Skills Council ran out of funds.

The redevelopment programme had already begun with some buildings, including the Hexagon, having been demolished.

It left the college nearly £6million out of pocket and this year the college put a stop to nonessential spending and asked for invoices to be delayed.

Nearly 70 of its 800 posts were made redundant. Christopher Bridge, chairman of the board of governors at the college, paid tribute to Mr Clough's achievements.

He said: “The college has changed beyond recognition. We shall miss him, but we have been talking about his retirement for some time.

“He has done the college proud over the past 12 years. The merger with Braintree College has been a success, as has the association with Essex University.

“There have been some difficult times, as there have been for everyone in the public sector.

“In some ways, we have had it tougher than most. We started the building programme and since that stopped we have had to find £6million to pay back to the bank. We took the view this year we would try to get income and expenditure back in place and we have done that with good results.’’