A college has unveiled multi-million pound plans for a new campus catering for up to 13,000 students.

Northbrook College is currently based at three locations around the town at Union Place, Broadwater Road and Littlehampton Road but wants to put all facilities on the Broadwater Road site which covers almost ten acres.

The cost of the scheme has been estimated at more than £42 million, with some of the cash coming from the sale of the Union Place and Littlehampton Road plots.

Northbrook principal David Percival hopes work could start next year but first the college must obtain planning permission for the campus, which includes a five-storey tower, theatre and at least 450 car spaces.

Access to the building, which appears from graphics to be predominantly glass-fronted and flat-roofed, would be via Carnegie Road as it is now.

Mr Percival said around 1,000 students from Worthing who could be taught at Northbrook travelled to colleges with better facilities elsewhere such as Chichester and Brighton.

He believes the new campus could cope with up to 13,000 students but emphasised that only a fraction would be on site at any one time.

Mr Percival said money would come from the sale of land, plus borrowing and grants from the Learning and Skills Council.

The theatre would replace one at Littlehampton Road which was built in the 1980s.

The tower, overlooking the Manor Sports Ground, would contain part of the library, a restaurant and boardroom.

The college currently has 650 car spaces but not all of them are used.

However residents will be concerned about the possibility of students parking in surrounding streets.

Mr Percival said: "I think it is going to be tremendous. Broadwater Road is a fantastic gateway position to the town centre. It will have buildings worth looking at and will bring people into the town."

David Sumner, the chairman of the Worthing Society conservation group, studied the plans which went on show for the first time today at the Gordon Room in Stoke Abbott Road, Worthing.

He gave the new college a cautious welcome, but said the devil was in the detail.

Mr Sumner said: "Some of our members said the Broadwater Road site should be housing, with the campus left out at Littlehampton Road."

If the scheme goes ahead, cabin-style school buildings put up in the early 1920s and still used by students will be demolished.