West Sussex has applied to turn The Pines on Faraday Close into a 60-place Oak Grove College satellite opening September 2028. Comments close 2 November.

The planning application that turns The Pines on Faraday Close into a 60-place satellite of Oak Grove College was validated by West Sussex County Council on Thursday 8 October. Comments close on 2 November and the county has set itself 3 December to decide. The special school would open in September 2028.

The application, WSCC/043/26, is the county applying to itself. The applicant is its Service Director for Property and Assets, and the county is also the planning authority for schools. The borough council has been consulted and the case appears on Worthing’s own planning list as AWDM/1187/26.

What is being built

The Pines is a two-storey building put up in 1991 as a training centre for adults with learning disabilities, on a site first approved for that use in 1987. The county declared it surplus in late 2022 when the centre moved out. Since then, the planning statement says, it has stood empty, “relatively unkept”, vandalised and deteriorating.

Turning it into a school does not itself need permission, because an adult training centre and a school sit in the same planning use class. What needs permission is the building and ground work around it:

  • a storage extension to the dining hall, under 250 square metres, in matching red brick
  • new canopies over the dining hall and servery door, and glazing on the refurbished front canopy
  • a like-for-like replacement roof with windcatchers and new glazing to the rooftop lantern
  • a hygiene room on the northern side with frosted glazing
  • an outdoor gym and playground with a sensory tunnel at the southern corner, which means removing a group of trees and planting a new hedge to screen it from Romany Road
  • a covered outdoor dining courtyard with raised planters for sensory learning, and a forest-school area on the rear grass where the polytunnel now stands
  • the car park resurfaced and relaid with three minibus bays and a safety zone for drop-off and pick-up

Security drives several of the changes. The trees along Faraday Close go, to stop anyone climbing in. The brick wall there stays, with 400mm of fencing on top to bring it to 2.4 metres, and access-controlled pedestrian gates are added inside the entrance.

Who the school is for

Oak Grove College is Worthing’s secondary special school, teaching pupils from Year 7 to Year 14 who all have an education, health and care plan. The planning statement puts its capacity at 276 and its roll at 274. Its main campus off Littlehampton Road shares a site with Durrington High School and, the county says, cannot grow without taking playing fields.

The Pines is 0.6 miles away by the planning statement’s measure. The county’s own decision report put the distance at about two miles and its consultation page at about one, so the figures disagree; the planning statement is the most recent.

The satellite would take planned places from 278 to 338, with numbers rising “gradually over several years”. The county told consultees the site “would be set up to meet the needs of pupils with the most complex needs”, and that class sizes at Oak Grove would not change. Because many pupils need one-to-one care, the statement expects the site to generate about 50 new jobs.

Pupils would arrive by county minibus in two windows, 8.15am to 9.15am and 3.30pm to 4.30pm. The county says that will limit traffic on Faraday Close at the busiest times.

Parking: four streets already full

The site has about 15 ordinary parking bays and four accessible ones, which is not enough for 50 staff. So the application’s transport statement surveyed the streets within 500 metres that allow on-street parking during term time.

Four of them were at or close to capacity for parts of the survey:

  • Alder Close
  • Deerswood Close
  • Poplar Road
  • Willow Crescent

Even leaving those four out entirely, the county says, the remaining streets had spare capacity of between 1.5 and 1.9 times the projected demand. A travel plan coordinator would be appointed to push staff towards bus, bike and walking. Faraday Close has a bus stop about 35 metres from the gate and Durrington-on-Sea station is an eight-minute cycle away.

Timeline of the Oak Grove College satellite site at The Pines, Faraday Close: adult training centre approved 1987 to 1988, surplus from late 2022, feasibility study summer 2024, informal consultation April to May 2025, £9.962m allocated September 2025, statutory notices 2 October to 6 November 2025 with 104 responses and 99 in favour, expansion approved July 2026, planning application validated 8 October 2026, comments close 2 November 2026, decision due 3 December 2026, opening September 2028
Four years from empty building to open school, if the county keeps to its dates. Graphic by The Worthing Express.
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How it got here, and what it costs

The education decision was taken before the planning one. In July 2026 Claire Hayes, the county’s Service Director for Education and Skills, approved the expansion under decision OKD05 (26/27). Her report records:

  • an informal consultation in April and May 2025, with over 95 per cent of replies in support
  • statutory notices from 2 October to 6 November 2025, drawing 104 responses: 99 in support (96.1 per cent), two against and two neutral
  • £9.962m of SEND capital allocated by the cabinet member in September 2025 to design and deliver the project
  • AtkinsRéalis as the delivery partner, following its summer 2024 feasibility study
  • a replacement modular classroom to be put on the main Oak Grove site, in place of the unit the school currently uses on neighbouring county land

The report’s case for the places is the county’s wider shortage. Since 2019 the number of EHC needs assessments completed each year has risen by 61 per cent, West Sussex now maintains over 11,000 plans, and every one of its maintained special schools is over its approved place number. Children who cannot be placed go to independent special schools, sometimes out of county, at higher cost.

Rob Venn, the county councillor for Northbrook, lodged a comment in support on the day the application was validated, saying he was “fully in favour”.

What it means for you

  • If you have a child with an EHCP waiting for a secondary special-school place, this is 60 more places in Worthing from September 2028, not before. Places are allocated on need, not address.
  • If you live on Romany Road or Faraday Close, the comment deadline is 2 November. Comments go through the county’s planning register, and the full plans and the parking survey are there to read.
  • If you park on Alder Close, Deerswood Close, Poplar Road or Willow Crescent, the county’s own survey already rates your street as full, and its case for staff parking rests on the streets around you having room.
  • If you use Faraday Close in the morning, the minibus windows are 8.15am to 9.15am and 3.30pm to 4.30pm. The Laurels Primary School is a little to the north.
  • The borough’s planning list carries the consultation as AWDM/1187/26, but the decision is the county’s.

Sources