MID Kent College's £48m move to a new site on Lower Lines is vital if Medway is to nurture the skills it needs to prosper.

That is the message from John Levett, college principal who has just unveiled the most ambitious and controversial plan in its 50-year history.

Under the plan, MKC will sell off the sites at Horsted and City Way for housing and put the proceeds towards a large new campus in Gillingham with capacity for around 10,000 students and more than 1,000 staff.

It will be located close to the Universities of Greenwich and Kent, and the Royal School of Military Engineering's Brompton Barracks, creating a concentrated education quarter with as many as 20,000 students.

Medway faces an exciting future, Mr Levett said, with the Thames Gateway and other projects coming along. But it needs to be a city of learning to capitalise on these opportunities. There would be huge demand for skills in construction, engineering, plumbing and a host of trades and services.

He said: "Our concern is to provide education and training for all ages that will help the local area and businesses to get the training they require.

"It is critical to the skills of Medway. Medway wants more skilled people and we've got Thames Gateway which will require even more people.

"Medway is a huge conurbation and it deserves training facilities right through further education into higher education for young people and for businesses.

"If you don't have the skills, Medway can never go forward in the way that it envisages. This pulls education very much together in the Medway Towns."

The new buildings, still subject to planning permission, will be put up on 16 acres which Mr Levett describes as scrubland no longer required by the Ministry of Defence.

A group of four, three and two storey-buildings have been designed to be square on to an ancient ditch that once accommodated firing lines. Mr Levett said it was important not to disturb the ditch and to have windows and an atrium that made the most of the vista across those "lines of fire."

He was looking for good design but also a functional site.

"We want to design sympathetically. We have kept the buildings low, we have a transport study going on and we are providing quite a lot of underground parking. We will be looking to Arriva to provide public transport to keep cars to a limited number."

Mr Levett said that Horsted - built in 1955 - and City Way (1967) were tired and poor quality buildings. "The vision is to move from two sites to one and to provide accommodation fit for the 21st century.”

He added: "It is a very large development but is something that's very exciting for Medway and can deliver at all levels of educational training."

If Medway council gives the go-ahead, the first phase of construction will start in June 2005.

The first buildings should be ready for students in September 2006. The second phase will be ready in 2007, with capacity for further expansion beyond that.