The latest photographs have been released showing the progress of a £5m centre at Accrington and Rossendale College.

The ‘Heartwood Centre’ will house the contemporary restaurant ‘Roots’, a bakery and shops, and will open to the public next month.

Sue Taylor, principal of Accrington and Rossendale College, said the building will become the ‘centrepiece of our fabulous college campus’ and bring ‘huge benefits to our students, our employers and our wider community’.

She said: “I can`t wait to get those doors open next month.

“The finishing touches are just being completed at our new multi-million pound Heartwood Centre, which we will be proud to open in September for our new intake of students and our local community.

“The new centre will complete our campus development, offering state of the art facilities for training in hospitality and catering, warehousing and logistics and management development.

“Job opportunities in all these areas are predicted to increase across Lancashire over the next few years.

“Our new centre will focus on providing top quality education and training, which will turn out the highly skilled professionals our local economy needs in the future.”

The Roots restaurant, which is currently Eatery 1853, based at the Globe Centre in Accrington, will move back to the campus and include ‘cutting edge’ training kitchens.

Sue said: “We have grown out of our current Eatery 1853 restaurant, and Roots will give us the opportunity to extend the phenomenal reputation we have already established for excellent food at great prices.

“We look forward to welcoming both new and existing customers to experience the best food for miles around, prepared by our multi-award-winning catering students and apprentices.

“The centre also has a fantastic conference facility, which has already taken a large number of advance bookings. It offers a great, central location, with easy access and ample parking, large hi-tec spaces and of course top quality catering at reasonable prices.”

The Observer revealed last year how plans were approved by Hyndburn Council’s planning committee for the centre offering hundreds of new apprenticeships and further training places despite concerns by residents over traffic congestion and noise pollution.”