Detailed plans for new Woodlands Meed College revealed

Back in May West Sussex County Council agreed to spend £20million on replacing the prefabricated buildings currently used by children at the Burgess Hill special school’s site in Birchwood Grove Road.

Detailed plans have now been drawn up and these are available to view on the county council’s website.

Meanwhile an online engagement event is being held on Microsoft Teams on Friday (November 6) at 6.30pm, ahead of the application being submitted later this month. To register an interest in attending, email [email protected]

Other interested parties will be able to add comments as part of the planning application process.

Nigel Jupp, cabinet member for education and skills, said: “Everyone involved in this project is very pleased to be able to show off the plans for the new college ahead of the planning application being submitted. The council has worked closely with Woodlands Meed College and its governors and architects to design a new building which we believe will meet the needs of its pupils and staff, now and into the future.”

The new college will have a greater amount of internal space, approximately 70 per cent more than the current school, with large classrooms and more specialist subject spaces. It will have a new sports hall, hydrotherapy pool and improved sporting facilities in the external areas, which will also be accessible to the community. The new design will be energy efficient to reduce the overall energy costs for Woodlands Meed.

Alongside this process, the council is also exploring an alternative site, at the request of the school, to understand if it could better meet the needs of the college. This is being run in parallel to the project to rebuild on the current College site in Burgess Hill and will not delay the project, the college buildings scheduled for completion in May 2023 and the external works for completion in October 2023.