Plans to turn a Worthing college campus into a police station have been scrapped by Sussex Police.
The plans were for a change of use for the Northbrook College site in Broadwater Road, Worthing, from an educational establishment into a police station, aiming to replace the current Sussex Police offices at Centenary House, Durrington.
The scheme was to be determined by Worthing Borough Council’s planning committee at its meeting on Wednesday, January 22, but was withdrawn by the force on the same day.
A spokesperson for the office of the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that, following due diligence works for the scheme, the force would explore other options after withdrawing its application.
They said: “The force has a refreshed estates strategy and a transformation programme underway and the Worthing site looked like it could provide a solution to accommodate police officers and staff.
“As you might expect, our office and the force estates team undertook an in-depth due diligence process to look at the condition and potential of the site.
“Having completed that in-depth look, a decision was made not to proceed with the acquisition and the change of use planning application was withdrawn. Other options to meet the estates transformation objectives will now be explored”.
According to plans submitted in August last year, Sussex Police were looking to establish a new district hub by moving command, investigations, prevention and support staff from Centenary House to Broadwater.
These services would need to be relocated from Centenary House before December this year, as the force’s shared-ownership partner there, West Sussex County Council, sold its stake in the site to developers to create a 250-home mixed used development
Plans would have also seen the force buy the Northbrook Broadwater Campus from its current owners, Chichester College Group, which marketed the freehold for the site in early 2024 following plans to merge the class offerings of its three Worthing campuses into two.
Had the sale of the Broadwater campus gone through, all land owned by the force in Centenary House would have been released for sale for the housing scheme.
The force was also looking to move its Neighbourhood Policing and Response teams, made up of PCSOs and police officers, and 999 and 101 call responders respectively, saying the site could support up to 600 to 700 staff and would be open 24/7.
But updated plans from November said the neighbourhood services would not be included in the new station, after some backlash from residents over sirens and flashing lights in a residential area.
Some 33 objections were received from 32 residents to the original plans, with updated plans receiving 17 objections from residents.
Original plans said the force had considered expanding the Centenary House offices by either building or converting existing buildings there, but said this would be cost prohibitive and leave ‘insufficient’ space for its needs.
They also say that more of the Sussex Police estate could be sold off as surplus for further residential development in the future as part of its estate transformation programme.
