Planners have recommended approving plans to turn a former college campus in Worthing into a police station.
Northbrook College is moving its teaching currently provided at the Broadwater Road campus to its sites in West Durrington and Worthing College from this September.
Sussex Police wants to relocate almost 200 of its command, investigations, prevent and support staff currently based in Durrington to the Broadwater site.
It originally submitted plans to Worthing Borough Council for up to 700 staff to be based there, along with response vehicles and a public counter.
It has now amended the plans to reduce the number of staff, and says the site would not be open to the public, and no blues and twos vehicles will be based there. It would be open from 7am to 10pm, seven days a week.
The force says it won’t buy the site until it knows it has planning permission to use it as a police station.
The council has received almost 50 objections to the plans – although some are from the same people commenting both before and after the plans were amended.
Many refer to the dangers of speeding response vehicles to pupils attending nearby schools, based on the original plans.
Others mention a covenant on the site stating it should be used for educational purposes – and the impact of large numbers of staff members on parking in surrounding streets.
Worthing’s planning committee is due to consider the plans this evening. A report before them says it is council policy to resist the loss of community facilities, such as a college.
It says: “The use as a police station is considered to provide this alternative community use as required by policy. Objectors have noted that there is a restrictive covenant on the site for educational purposes only.
“This is a separate matter to the planning permission. If an application for change of use is granted, a separate process will need to be undertaken by the applicant to address this.
“The proposal has been modified since originally submitted to restrict the site to use by office based staff only. This is different to the original proposal which was for a police hub with emergency vehicle movements and a public facing counter.
“It is therefore necessary to condition that the site is only used for this purpose. If in the future the police want to expand the operation on the site further they will need to apply for a new planning application.
“While it is noted that the objectors have suggested the site should be used for a sixth form college or other educational use, the policy does not specifically seek to protect educational uses and the use as a police facility would fit within the policy outlined above.”
