Lakes College wants to alter the parking arrangements for its National College for Nuclear building.

The new building, at Lillyhall, is set to be built on the site of an existing overspill car park, which provides 54 spaces, three of which are accessible.

The previously approved application made provision for 73 spaces, including three accessible bays, split between two car parks north and south of the building.

But now the developer wants to cut costs and replace the proposed car parks with a single car park to the south and west of the building, providing 68 spaces, three of which would be accessible.

The change would mean a reduction of five parking spaces from the original application but the college believes that that would have a negligible impact.

It would still be an increase of 14 bays from the current parking arrangements.

The college has lodged an application with Allerdale Council which is under consultation until March 31.

Work on the new £15million building started in October, with the Northern Hub set to open in September.

The hi-tech facility will become one of two UK centres, the second to be built at Bridgewater in Somerset.

The National College for Nuclear aims to train more than 7,000 of the next generation of nuclear workers across both facilities by 2020. Some of those will be taking longer courses, others will take part in specialist one-day training opportunities.

Led by Sellafield Ltd and EDF Energy, in partnership with Lakes College and the University of Cumbria, the training facilities will include a realtor simulator and engineering workshops. One of the key features will be the latest virtual reality technology, allowing technicians to learn about the complexities of nuclear decommissioning away from Sellafield.