Minister agrees funding for Hove school in old police station

Schools Minister David Laws has agreed to fund places for pupils in the old Hove Police Station when it is turned into a school.

The Liberal Democrat minister said that the money would enable West Hove Junior School to take three extra classes – or 90 pupils – a year at the Holland Road site.

The school will be run as an annex of the junior school in Portland Road, Hove, in the same way that the Connaught annex is run for infants.

The funding is being provided through the coalition government’s Targeted Basic Needs programme to cater for the growing demand for school places across the country.

Councils were asked to bid for the funding in March by the Department for Education after the Chancellor outlined the scheme as part of his autumn statement late last year.

A planning application to convert the old police station into a school has been submitted to Brighton and Hove City Council.

And a formal consultation is under way after winning the backing of the council’s Children and Young People Committee last Tuesday (16 July). The report to councillors can be read here.

Councillors were told that almost every single response to a preliminary consultation supported the expansion.

The council bought the disused building from Sussex Police for £2.2 million in May.

It hopes the first pupils will start in Holland Road in September next year with a view to taking four classes – or 120 pupils – a year from September 2015.