The college has been forced to cut courses

Coleg Gwent has announced it is to axe more than 30 jobs and drop unpopular courses.

In a letter seen by BBC Wales, teachers at the college's Pontypool campus accuse managers of making a bad situation worse.

Last week Coleg Gwent revealed that it was struggling with a budget deficit of more than �600,000. Its problems have led to a round of job losses and a re-organisation of courses.

College authorities said relatively few students would be affected by the changes, which will allow shrinking resources to be spent on the kind of subjects which are most popular with students.

But now 62 staff at the Pontypool campus have written a letter criticising the management for the timing of the announcement and for spending decisions which, they claim, made the situation worse.

Resources are limited and we know that funding is unlikely to improve in the short term, and we need to focus our spending where it is most effective Coleg Gwent statement

They have said that college governors, staff, and students alike have been kept in the dark about the plans.

And they have insisted the college's management team should resign.

They are vowing to fight the changes, and one of the unions, NATFHE, will meet on Wednesday to consider calls for strike action.

In a statement, Coleg Gwent's management said :"We are simply moving some subjects to other locations. Where courses are affected, we will make sure that students are able to continue their studies through to completion."

The statement said staff, students, and the local economy would benefit if the college put more resources into courses which were in demand, like construction, for instance.

"Resources are limited and we know that funding is unlikely to improve in the short term, and we need to focus our spending where it is most effective," it added.

Neil McEvoy - a lecturer at the college who is standing as a Plaid Cymru councillor for Cardiff in the forthcoming local elections - said there had been concerns over the way money had been spent.

"They have undertaken a huge capital building programme which is costing an absolute fortune," he said.

"On top of that, with the retirement packages and the recruitment of the chief executive, the corporate management team has spent something in the region of �450,000 - and the deficit is only �660,000.

"What the staff at the college are saying is that they are not going to accept this. We are 100% united and the corporate managers should resign."

Fforwm - the association of further education colleges in Wales - said it did not wish to comment on specific circumstances in individual colleges.

It said, however, that colleges in Wales were facing an operating deficit of over �3m pounds for this financial year.

That was likely to escalate unless ELWa reviewed its proposed funding allocation for the sector, which had been frozen for 2004-5.

Fforwm said it wanted to work with the new management team at ELWa and was hopeful that the new funding and planning system would begin to address the funding deficit facing colleges.

Last week, further education colleges in Wales said they needed an extra �5m to head off a crisis which could lead to many more jobs being cut and courses dropped.

Finance managers at 13 of the 25 institutions in Wales have said they are in debt to the tune of nearly �3.5m.

Pencoed College, near Bridgend, has announced it is discontinuing under-subscribed agricultural courses from the end of this academic year.

There have been warnings that other colleges might follow Gwent's example. Swansea College has already ended a number of part-time courses.