A 200-acre site off the A141 March bypass is to become the £35million home for the College of West Anglia s Fenland campus. Seventy acres of farm land will be allocated for the college, with the remainder becoming a massive country park. A new slip road t

A 200-acre site off the A141 March bypass is to become the £35million home for the College of West Anglia's Fenland campus.

Seventy acres of farm land will be allocated for the college, with the remainder becoming a massive country park.

A new slip road through to the bypass will be created, with a pedestrian and cycle underpass allowing students easy access to March town centre.

The decision to plump for the bypass site will end months of uncertainty over the siting of the new campus, to be created following the merger of Wisbech's Isle College with the King's Lynn-based West Anglia college.

Peter Stewart, principal of the College of West Anglia, said this week that funding for the March campus, and for a new £60million campus in Lynn, had been agreed "subject to detailed planning".

Architects are finalising plans which, for March, could also see the building of a new pub by the river, opposite Fox's Marina.

Fenland District Council will be "gifted" the country park, which will link to an extended West End Park to create a huge expanse of open space between the college and the town.

Developers who have pieced together the jigsaw of land ownership - there are thought to be at least seven - hope to deliver the scheme in time for work to begin as early as 2008.

One idea also being considered for the college is for a modern sports complex which could tie in with the extended range of vocational and degree courses that will be on offer.