RUNSHAW College will welcome its first royal visitor when Princess Anne officially opens the new Eskdale building on the Langdale Road site.

Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, is coming to the North West on May 14 and is expected to spend about an hour at the new £3.8m development.

Runshaw bosses met the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire to discuss preparations for the visit. Jim Smith, spokesman for the college, said: "We are delighted and highly honoured that The Princess Royal is coming.

"We'll plan a comprehensive programme and make sure we're fully prepared to give demonstrations of the new technology here."

The Eskdale building caters for around 1,000 students a day and has been up and running since last September. The hard-working Princess will tour the three-storey extension which houses arts, design technology, media studies, music, dance and drama, and also offers computer and business courses.

Future plans at Runshaw include an upgraded Adult Education Centre in Chorley and a new sports hall, to be finished by the year 2000.

The Eskdale building is part of a £7.25m investment by the Further Education Funding Council at the Leyland college since 1994.

It has included new science labs, language labs, classrooms for maths, English, social sciences and history, new restaurants and entrances.

The Princess Royal will officially open the Eskdale after a meeting in Blackpool with Intensive Care Society members.

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