Two major projects funded via the Greater Lincolnshire LEP by the Government’s Growth Deal are coming to fruition.

Last month Sir Edward Leigh MP officially opened the £11.5m second phase of Bishop Burton College’s £24.5m Riseholme College Showground Campus near Lincoln.

The new campus includes the Agri-Tech Health and Nutrition Centre, incorporating specialist laboratories and food science facilities, and the Sports and Health Science Centre, which includes a fitness suite with state-of-the-art gym equipment, Olympic-standard mixed use sports hall and floodlit all-weather pitch.

Phase two was supported by £7.5m of Government funding secured from the Growth deal by the Greater Lincolnshire LEP.

Jeanette Dawson OBE, Principal and Chief Executive of Bishop Burton College, said: “One year ago we were celebrating the opening of the first phase of the Riseholme Showground Campus.

“Twelve months on, we are here to officially open phase two of the campus – which, again, has been delivered on time and to budget.

"We couldn't have done this without the help of the Greater Lincolnshire LEP. Colleges have lost the ability to bid for capital grants and have had to rely on LEPs, and Greater Lincolnshire has been one of the first to throw their hat into the ring."

Meanwhile the new £6.75 million Boole Technology Centre on Lincoln’s Science and Innovation Park is set to be completed two months ahead of schedule.

New tenants should be able to start fitting out their laboratories and offices inside the building from the start of February 2017.

The Greater Lincolnshire LEP negotiated £3.375m of Growth Deal funding to support the development of the building, which sits at the core of the science park’s mission to enhance the county’s economy by stimulating further business growth and innovation.

Tom Blount, Director of Lincoln Science and Innovation Park, said: “Part of the purpose for this is to create a home for technology businesses so we have a real intensity of that technical skill and knowledge of innovation and can reach out across supply chains across the county and improve a lot of those businesses, making them more competitive.

“It doesn’t just create a lot of jobs here, it also safeguards jobs in supply chains all over our patch, and that’s really what we want to do.”

The 2,398 square metre centre is the first building on the science park to be purpose-built for technology businesses. Once fully let it is expected to directly create or secure 53 jobs.