1. April 03 course is not cancelled. Sorry 250kts, but your source was a tad premature.
2. The entire course is being over-hauled which may require a reduced output from the college for a short period [one or two courses] to work through the changes from old to new system. the new course will be shorter, but will focus on training ATCOs for the skills they will actually use. No more Tower ticket for Area controllers.
3. The large amount of trainees in the system at the moment are not due to high failure rate. The much publicised shortage of ATCOs also means a shortage of instructors both at the college, and at LACC, made worse by last-years shift from West Drayton. Any reduced intake into Area Training will be used to reduce the backlog, and thus improve the chances of subsequent trainees validating. Thus you are better off waiting pre-college, than hanging around forgetting what you have learned half-way through.
Numpo 'fraid I agree, although the lack of timely decisions was not the fault of recruitment, but down to a Mr Cheese Holme. It would have suited everyone's purpose better if April had been cancelled to sort out the mess, but t'was not politically expedient.