A FORMER college campus could be about to have new life breathed into it as a community hub.

Bacup Consortium Trust has earmarked Stubbylee Barn, on the edge of the town, as a potential home for an education centre, market hall, cafe and community cinema.

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Until 2014, a former carting shed and adjoining offices at the Grade II-listed building, in Stubbylee Park, were used by Accrington and Rossendale College as an engineering campus.

Planning agent Ben Edmondson said the social enterprise would look to install a working kitchen to serve the cafe.

He said: “The change of use to form the cafe would enable the building to be used by the public and would also seek to employ student chefs providing a key addition to the park and further educational benefits.”

Trust chief executive Souta van Wick has told Rossendale Council development officials the centre would offer courses in catering, hospitality and food hygiene.

Volunteering opportunities would be offered with the nearby Stubbylee Greenhouses, with the overall focus being on helping people who are recovering from mental health difficulties, social isolation and addiction.

The cafe and community cinema, which would open for one day a week, are ‘essential’ in providing some financial support for the scheme, the applicant has said.

Under the plans, which have been recommended to councillors for approval, a glazed extension would be installed on the eastern elevation, to provide a covered area for the eaterie Planning manager Nicola Hopkins said in a development control committee report: “The buildings in question are currently vacant and it is considered that the proposed scheme would enable the re-use of the buildings which would help to secure their upkeep.”