Gosport college looks to boost funds with weddings

St Vincent College commercial director Lee Hockaday Picture:  Malcolm Wells (160518-6166)St Vincent College commercial director Lee Hockaday Picture:  Malcolm Wells (160518-6166)
St Vincent College commercial director Lee Hockaday Picture: Malcolm Wells (160518-6166)
A COLLEGE is hoping to boost its income by holding weddings at its site.

St Vincent College is holding its first wedding reception this summer and has put in a planning application to hold ceremonies too.

The college has appointed Lee Hockaday as its commercial director to help it bring in cash.

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She said: ‘We have such a beautiful site here and we thought weddings would be a really exciting prospect.

‘The first reception is in July and we hope that our planning application for change of use and our application for a licence will be approved.

‘When it comes to our weddings, we want to encourage people to use businesses from Gosport and surrounding areas so we can help them too.’

As well as the weddings, the college, off Mill Lane, also hopes to invite businesses in to use its meeting rooms and sports clubs to take advantage of its facilities.

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St Vincent also wants to use its grounds and equipment for business away days.

Lee added: ‘Funding for colleges has become less and less and this means we have to find ways to become commercially viable.

‘We have 32 acres of grounds here and it really is a beautiful site.

‘It has to be utilised and a way of doing that is by having more than one use for our buildings.

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‘When one of our main halls is decorated, it looks beautiful.’

This summer, St Vincent College is holding a music festival to promote bands in Gosport and its music students.

It also wants to offer 
space as a theatre and for the arts.

Lee said: ‘The music festival is another example of a way we want to get the community to use the site. It should be a wonderful day.

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‘Making the site commercially viable is for the community as well.

‘We can offer clubs and businesses the chance to use our halls and we can help each other.

‘This is about making funds for the college but it is also about helping the area and giving people more options when it comes to space and facilities.’

For more information visit stvincent.ac.uk.

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