A new £5 million catering centre is to be developed at the Colchester Institute to improve facilities for students.

Work on the scheme for the Colchester site will begin in November after the cash was approved by its corporation board.

But a spokeswoman for the institute promised it was not the end of catering courses at its Clacton site - which has previously been the main focal point for catering students.

She said there was a need to upgrade facilities in Colchester and it was not possible to develop at Clacton as its building on Marine Parade East was listed and that therefore limited what could be done there.

"We listened to the students' needs and came up with the plan for a new £5 million centre which will include excellent training facilities, three restaurants offering silver service, a bistro and a function room," she said.

Over £1.5 million of the investment is coming from the Further Education Funding Council. The new centre will be an extension of the current catering block at Colchester and located on the north side of the campus overlooking the gardens.

Helen Parr, principal of the Colchester Institute, said: "Colchester Institute is committed to continually updating facilities for students."

The centre is expected to be completed by early 2002 and the current catering block will be refurbished at the same time for general teaching.

The spokeswoman added that it will mean higher education courses in catering being relocated from Clacton to Colchester.

However, other catering courses will remain there along with the Langtry Restaurant.

"The restaurant will remain and customers will still continue to be served by students," she said.

"We remain committed to the Clacton site which is very important to us."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.