AMBITIOUS proposals for an £8 million facelift for Suffolk's top agricultural college are set to get the go-ahead.Councillors will decide the project for Otley College next week – and are being recommended by planning officers to grant permission as long as a legal agreement is signed to ensure the phased building of the development.

AMBITIOUS proposals for an £8 million facelift for Suffolk's top agricultural college are set to get the go-ahead.

Councillors will decide the project for Otley College next week – and are being recommended by planning officers to grant permission as long as a legal agreement is signed to ensure the phased building of the development.

Officials at the college, which stands on a 12-hectare site in Charity Lane, Otley, submitted the masterplan for the future earlier this year.

Suffolk Coastal's north area development control sub committee has visited the site and there has been extensive consultation with nearby residents.

The project outlines how Otley College would expand over the next 15 years, eventually growing from its current 1,175 students to nearly 3,000.

If councillors give approval next Wednesday , it is hoped the first phase of building work beginning late autumn.

Plans also involve a community sports facility including football, rugby and cricket pitches and a pavilion, facilities which would be made available for community use.

The longer term expansion will see the campus expanded to 20,000 sq metres by 2018.