Hove school given permission to convert old police station

The old Hove Police Station will be turned into a school after plans for the conversion were approved yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 28 August).

Almost 500 children will eventually attend the new school in Holland Road, Hove.

Brighton and Hove City Council submitted the application to convert the police station into a school to be run as an annex of West Hove Junior School.

And the council’s Planning Committee approved the plans, which include building a two and three-storey extension, at a meeting at Hove Town Hall yesterday.

The council has already carried out a consultation about its proposal to use the site as an annex of West Hove Junior School.

The proposal is modelled on the annex of West Hove Infant School site which operates in Connaught Road.

The council will carry out a final consultation starting on Monday (2 September) now thatplanning permission has been granted.

The aim is for the first 90 children to start at the school in September next year with 120 children joining each year after that.

Numbers would grow to about 480 over four years, with 38 staff working at the Holland Road premises.

The two and three-storey extension will create a school hall and two new classrooms. Hardstandings and a grassed area would be kept for use as playgrounds.

Part of the site will be landscaped with new trees, shrubs and lily ponds and the site will be surrounded by an 8ft mesh fence.

Planning permission requires the school to submit a playground management plan to ensure that the impact of noise on surrounding properties is limited.

The plans do not include any on-site parking for staff, parents or visitors although an existing garage will be converted to hold 20 cycles.

The council said that the number of school-age children in Brighton and Hove had risen by 21 per cent since 2001.

In central Hove the figure has more than doubled and the number of children exceeds the 390 reception places in the area.

The same committee meeting yesterday also approved plans to expand two other schools.

Aldrington Church of England Primary School will build three extensions, doubling the school’s capacity to 436.

And Cardinal Newman Catholic School was given permission to put up a new building to increase its sixth form capacity by 150.

Planning Committee chairman Councillor Phélim Mac Cafferty said: “It’s really great to be able to approve these plans to expand the number of school places in the city.

“This is one of the city’s most pressing issues and it’s good to see real progress.”