The newly opened Holland Road campus for Hove Junior School
Green councillors in Brighton and Hove have welcomed the successful opening of new junior classrooms on the site of the former Hove police station. The site will now be run as a satellite campus of Hove Junior after a £2.4 million renovation. The decision to extend the school’s facilities came as Green councillors seek to provide first rate education for ever growing numbers of children in the city.
The proposal to turn the site into classrooms was made by Green Councillor Alex Phillips and pushed forward by the Green Group on the council. The former police station, in Holland Road, was bought by the council after it closed last year, in response to a high demand for primary places in the local area.
Chair of the council’s Children and Young People committee, Councillor Sue Shanks, said:
“Hove Juniors is an excellent school, and we are delighted that they are running the new Holland Road site. It means both a high quality education and continuity for the children coming from Connaught Road Infant School.”
Ruth Buckley, Goldsmid Councillor and Deputy Leader said:
The new Holland Road site is a brilliant example of using existing buildings for new schools in urban areas.”
“It has been a great opportunity to showcase green initiatives open to schools and new buildings to help reduce running costs. Not only were solar panels installed, ventilation stacks were used, double glazing to help keep the building warm in winter and roof lights to cool the building in summer which are fitted with sensors to automatically close in the event of rainfall. To help reduce costs,existing lights were salvaged from the building before renovation, restored and put to new use.”
Notes
Sussex Police Officers and Neighbourhood Community Officers transferred last year from the Holland Road site into a new shared Customer Service Centre at Hove Town Hall, as part of a joint-working initiative which is saving tax payers money.
The remodelling of the former police station for use as classrooms was designed and implemented by the council’s in-house property and design team.
The new school building now features 16 classrooms with a year group on each floor. The building also includes a library, staff room and kitchen alongside a brand new extension for a state of the art school hall with solar panels on the roof. The outdoor play area includes a mini football pitch, a grassy area, an astro turf area and a garden.
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