WEST Somerset students could soon have access to some of the best agricultural facilities of any secondary school in the country under proposals to increase the size of the college farm fivefold. College principal Nick Swann confirmed negotiations were on-going to acquire a massive 17-acre site alongside Minehead's car boot sale field. The college is hoping to secure the site on a long lease from the Crown Estate, which in turn will enable it to apply for funding to expand facilities such as greenhouses and polytunnels. The move - which could come to fruition within the next 18 months - will see the college's entire agricultural provision relocating from its existing three acre site. Mr Swann said neither the college nor the local education authority had any aspirations to retain the existing farm site - which is labelled as land for "future development" on the planning application for the New Horizons 'healthplex' scheme. He said the main priority for the college was being able to introduce a much wider range of vocational, horticultural and agricultural courses. The advent of the New Horizons scheme and its planned skills and enterprise centre would also provide students with first class facilities to study courses ranging from catering and construction to hairdressing and horse care. Mr Swann said: "There is huge potential to expand courses - we are one of only a handful of schools to have a farm unit. "But a farm unit of two to three acres linked to the college just isn't big enough. "The challenge has been to find somewhere big enough to put our horticultural and agricultural facilities and also to find somewhere that is close to the college." He said relocating the farm unit to the Crown Estate-owned plot would enable the college to have bigger barns, new polytunnels and greenhouses and to introduce a broader spectrum of courses. He said education chiefs at both national and local levels had been fully supportive and he stressed the move was not being forced by the need to create space or development deals for the New Horizons scheme. Mr Swann said: "We are not moving off the existing site because of the New Horizons scheme, we are doing it because we want to expand. "We already have more than 100 students learning horticulture . . . the top priority for us is the introduction of new vocational courses." However, he confirmed the existing farm site would be incorporated into the overall New Horizons project - possibly as a residential development. He said the new farm could be up and running by September 2008, while he was hopeful funding for the farm buildings would be forthcoming from the Millennium Schools Council. "This is potentially an amazing opportunity for this area, especially as the vast majority of the funding will be coming from outside the district," Mr Swann said.