Brighton University has pulled the plug on its plans to open a new secondary school in the area.
The university, working with Brighton and Hove City Council, had hoped to open the proposed school in the east of the city.
But changing circumstances prompted a rethink after a long and challenging quest to find a suitable site.
Land at Brighton General Hospital was given the most serious consideration followed by former college premises in Preston Road.
The university said: “The University of Brighton Academies Trust has formally withdrawn its proposal to sponsor a new secondary school in Brighton and Hove.
”The decision was reached in discussions with the Department for Education following recent changes to the demand for secondary school places in the city in light of new demographic data and planned expansions of existing local secondary schools.”
The academy trust’s chief executive, John Smith, said: “Given the change of circumstances since we were invited to sponsor the school in 2015, and recent discussions with the DfE to discuss alternative options, it is clear that the project cannot continue as planned.
”The academies trust has therefore formally withdrawn its proposal.
“We received a significant amount of support and input from across the city from those who wanted to see the new school go ahead.
”We are particularly grateful to parents and carers and primary schools in the local area and officers in the local authority for their contribution to the development of the plans for what would have been an exciting and innovative addition to secondary education in the city.”
The acadamies trust is a not-for-profit charitable trust and sponsors 15 secondary and primary schools in the Sussex area.
It won praise from the Prime Minister Theresa May, it said, for its commitment and track record in raising the aspirations of students through its support for academy schools.
The university added: “In 2015, the university was invited by Brighton and Hove City Council to sponsor a proposed new secondary school in the city.
“Plans were subsequently developed to open the new school on the Brighton General Hospital site in the east of the city.”
Increasingly the heads of existing Brighton and Hove secondary schools said that the student numbers didn’t stack up and that they could temporarily accommodate any bulge in pupil numbers.
This doesn’t help the families that can’t get their children into a school in their catchment area this year 😡
Not to mention all the families that were misplaced last year, with many children still having to travel great distances away from their communities and friends that they have known for years. When will the council take responsibility for the devastation caused or formally apologise to these children.