WEYMOUTH College's new principal Sue Moore says she's ready to make tough choices to battle through the current cash crisis.

In her first interview since taking up the hot-seat at the troubled college, she said some course programmes will have to be cut and job losses will be made as the fight to get Weymouth College back on track financially is launched.

But she added: "I am confident that once we get through the current difficulties facing the college we will have a bright future ahead - I wouldn't have taken on the job if I didn't believe that."

In January, three months before Mrs Moore took over as principal, the college revealed it had called in the bank to help bail it out of a £470,000 cash crisis and faced having to borrow more than £1.5 million to keep afloat. The massive shortfall was blamed on the crippling cost of last year's staff restructuring programme and a slump in student numbers.

Mrs Moore, who is 50, has already launched a five-year recovery plan for the college. She said: "My job is to stabilise the college in the short term, which basically means we have to balance the books.

"We have to keep the balance between choice and financial prudence, so obviously we can't keep running programmes if they make a loss, but at the same time we need to look at the range of courses we offer too.

"We might have to shrink areas of provision, but we are trying not to take out programme areas."

She admitted some college staff would lose their jobs in the shake-up - but the extent of the redundancies would not be known until the autumn.

The new principal is no stranger to handling financial crisis. In her previous job as principal at South Lanarkshire College, near Glasgow, she was brought in to deal with a college in financial difficulty.

She said: "By the time I left, the college was more financially secure and was working as part of its community in collaboration with a number of partners in projects relating to social inclusion and economic regeneration.

"I believe my previous experience at South Lanarkshire and at Bilston College in the Midlands, where I also worked, has provided an excellent base for the developments that I and my team will take on at Weymouth College."

Applications for college places for the next academic year in some departments are up by 10 per cent, according to Mrs Moore.

She says if student numbers grow as much as the applications suggest, course and job cuts later in the year can be kept to a minimum.

She added: "I have already appointed a new financial director and deputy principal, Paul Lonsdale."