PLANS to merge further education colleges in Southend, Basildon and Grays into a giant “supercollege” have taken a step forward.

A merger of Thurrock and Basildon College with South East Essex College will create a college, with 12,000 staff, catering for 20,000 students.

The decision to merge the colleges was announced in June, but details of the likely location of sites for the new college are yet to be confirmed.

However, this week, Thurrock’s Thames Gateway development corporation planning committee gave the go-ahead for a new college campus in Argent Street, Grays.

Temporary classrooms will be moved to the site by January, allowing as many as 300 students to start A-level, AS-level and Btec courses.

Permanent college buildings would then be built there by 2013.

Committee chairman Will McKee said: “One of the biggest problems in Thurrock is the low skills of its population.

“This is possibly the most important application we have had to deal with – on a par with the London Gateway port.”

College project director Zak Mockton told the meeting as well as teaching teenagers, the college hoped to offer courses for young adults in the near future.

It is not yet clear if Thurrock and Basildon College’s existing sites, in Nether Mayne, Basildon, and Woodview, Grays will remain open.

Public consultations about the merger are shortly to be held across the area to give the public a say.

Education bosses from Thurrock and Basildon College agreed earlier this year a merger was the only way forward – with South East Essex College, Southend, the most suitable partner.

Detailed plans are now being drawn up.

Thurrock and Basildon College has 5,000 post-secondary school students and more than 300 permanent staff.

South East Essex College has 12,000 students on its books and 900 staff. It is not yet clear if the merger will mean redundancies.