A former college campus could be turned into a major police hub. Sussex Police wants to relocate from its current site at Centenary House in Worthing to Northbrook College’s campus in Broadwater. The site, in Broadwater Road, was put up for sale earlier this year ahead of its merger with the college’s West Durrington campus.
Last year, Andrew Green, chief executive of the Chichester College Group which runs the college, said the decision was made to shut the campus because of soaring costs and the “inefficiency” of having three large sites in the town. Courses which are currently delivered at the Broadwater campus will be taught at other Chichester College Group campus sites in the Worthing area including the West Durrington campus and at Worthing College. The premises will continue to be occupied as a college until September 2025.
Sussex Police are currently co-located with West Sussex County Council at Centenary House. However, the council is disposing of the land for the development of 250 homes and requires the police to relocate to a smaller part of the site on retained land in Sussex Police’s ownership. Planning documents submitted to Worthing Borough Council for the change of the college site’s use said the force had considered refurbishing the existing buildings at Centenary House for the 300 staff located at the base but that the buildings “do not lend themselves to being easily converted”, would be costly and “of insufficient size” for staff.
“The intention is for Sussex Police to become an owner-occupier of the site in full,” said planning documents. “The site would become a large district hub for the police force, triggering the release of all land in shared ownership at Centenary House, which is allocated for 250 residential units and 10,000m2 employment (part re-provided) by the Worthing local plan. “In addition, further sites across the police estate could be triggered potentially as surplus and disposed of for further residential development.
“Options for a new build based at the Centenary House site have also been explored to RIBA stage one but appear cost prohibitive and again would not support the full cohort of staff being retained at the Centenary House site. “Both of these options within an affordability envelope would also require some of the existing staff based in this location to be relocated elsewhere within the Sussex Police portfolio. “In contrast, the Northbrook College Campus provides a more feasible and suitable option; it is in a good location in the west division to be a major district hub, the location is accessible to both the road networks and also remains accessible within the town of Worthing.
“Furthermore, the site provides mostly modern and well-provided buildings with significant internal open plan zones, which support easy conversion to larger flexible open plan layouts to align with the applicant’s needs in the context of the estates transformation strategy.” No external alterations or extensions to the property are proposed as part of the application and the site is expected to support around 600 to 700 staff. The hub would have a public front counter and would house the Neighbourhood Policing team through the hours of 8am to 11pm daily, Neighbourhood Response teams through shifts of 24hrs/ seven days a week, command, investigative teams, forensics teams, enabling services teams such as IT and HR, specialised investigation and operating teams.
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