NEWTON Abbots new vocational training centre for 16-19-year-olds could open its doors in September 2011.

The preferred site, owned by Sibelco, is just north of the new hospital at Whitehill Cross.

The greenfield site, next to Exeter Road, is earmarked for employment.

Richard Haigh, who is managing the £5m project, told Newton Abbot Town Councils finances and resources committee that Devon County Council was negotiating to purchase the site.

The aim is to get a funding application into the Learning and Skills Council by early September, with a view to start building in 2010.

Mr Haigh said: Newton Abbot is the second largest centre of population in Devon and has no further education provision. There is no further education provision in the whole of Teignbridge.

While many make the journey to Exeter or Paignton, he said many fell between the cracks.

Large numbers of young people in Newton Abbot become disengaged from education and become NEETS - Not in Employment, Education or Training. There are something like 300 in Newton Abbot in this position.

The centre will offer Level 1 and 2 courses in everything from child care to construction, with engineering being offered at Centraxs own training centre at Milber and land-based courses at Abbrook Farm, in conjunction with Bicton College.

He said the Whitehill Cross site was central, had good public transport links and had room to expand. The county council had expressed interest in putting an ICT hub there, with business start-up units and managed work space. He suggested it might also be suitable for the new Hubbub, or civic centre, identified in the towns community plan.

He said:Our application must proceed very quickly while funding is still available.

Whitehill is excellent in terms of the strategic development of Newton Abbot. Im just a little anxious that with the change of administration at the county council, things might unravel a little bit or get delayed.

An alternative might be a Teignbridge Council site at Collett Way but Mr Haigh said this was less attractive, being constrained and at the back of an industrial estate.

The issue is whether there is a strategic vision for the development of greater Newton Abbot or whether we just build a training centre wherever we can get a bit of land.