STUDENTS returned to college today after more than 100 staff took part in a one-day strike.

Staff at Bolton Community College joined thousands of their colleagues from all over the country for yesterday's strike after rejecting a 2.3 per cent pay rise.

College chiefs closed the Manchester Road campus as well as all the other satellite teaching centres across the town for health and safety reasons.

The joint-union protest involved members of Unison and the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education.

Members of both unions picketed the entrances to the college and handed out leaflets detailing their pay demands.

The college's Unison spokesman, John Aspinall, said: "We were united on the picket line. The strike was a success and we received a good reaction from members of the public."