A school wants to put up a 10ft (3-metre) high mesh fence to restrict access to its playing fields.
Varndean School, in Balfour Road, Brighton, has submitted plans to Brighton and Hove City Council for the fence.
It would be a third of a mile long, or 500 metres, with three single gates and two double gates for access.
But some neighbours have raised concerns about the proposal in local Facebook groups and have already lodged objections because they use the field outside of school hours.
One anonymous objector, whose details were redacted by the council, said: “It will stop children playing freely, as they have done here for many years with no problems and with respect for school use during school times.
“We live here all the time and all year round. My kids grew up sledding down the hill in winter and chasing balls in summer. This is a sad and unnecessary application.”
Varndean said that access to the wider campus and open fields would not be affected by the fence which would apply to “defined areas” of the school site.
They said that the school had been in touch with neighbours throughout the process, directly through correspondence and face-to-face meetings.
The school said: “The safety and wellbeing of our pupils and staff is our foremost responsibility.
“This is a measured step to support that and we remain fully committed to transparency and to our positive relationship with our neighbours throughout the planning process.”
To view the application or comment, search for BH2026/00745 on the council’s website.
Totally inappropriate, spend the money on more pressing things like education and pastoral demands.
Perverts having access to children is definitely more inappropriate
I agree with you but I think you will find that most cases originated on-line. Therefore the correlation is the money should be spent on educating children of the dangers. Or do we take a hammer and cutters to stop computer access?
Ann – what do you consider more important than student safety? The school has a legal duty with regards safeguarding and this is part of meeting that responsibility
Was it a safeguarding issue the last 30 years. Seems like a fence that’s going to break up further access to that fields
It was a safeguarding issue for its very close neighbour Dorothy Stringer – they observed children being threatened by members of the public or pupils from other schools “looking for violent intent”, dog mess, drug taking and parkour. They submitted a planning application in 2020 to the council, and a fence was built. There’s an article written about it in this paper on 8 January 2020 by Jo Wadsworth called “plans to fence off
Dorothy Stringer site to stop vandalism, violence, parkour and terrorists”. Ultimately, the school’s purpose it to educate children, not provide an open space for the public to use (and sadly abuse); parks locally run by the council (eg Hollingbury, Blakers and Preston offer this). I fail to understand why Varndean is exempt from the same concerns that Stringer experienced a few years back.
Student safety is paramount but educating them behind 10ft chain link fences is like sending them to a Young Offenders Institute! I fail to appreciate how such an incongruous measure is required when there appears to be no recorded incidents threatening pupil safety with the current facilities. Indeed, if recent reports are indicative, the major dangers appear to be from within. Maybe it’s just a precursor to justify selling off the land?
I do love a conspiracy theory backed up by absolutely zero facts. Keep it up Ann you could be a novelist with the amount of drivel you write on here
Where is the conspiracy theory?
If you look at recent history, schools have been privatised (academies) or closed resulting in the loss to local government and community.
With regards to reported crime, this is empirically correct.
I have visited several YOIs and high chain-link fencing is evident.
Perhaps your literary critic credentials are as fanciful as your prose? lol
Ann you stated “there appear to be no recorded incidents threatening pupil safety with the current facilities”. Could you please explain where exactly all safeguarding incidents where children have been threatened at this or other schools are recorded publicly? Occasionally incidents may be reported in the press, but many will not be. I really don’t think you can honestly make a claim it’s an “incongruous measure” as information on safeguarding incidents is not publicly available to the best of my knowledge. Perhaps you could also explain where you have seen information indicative of the council or Varndean selling off land.
Just check the available public records on crime in the neighborhood. Recent plans for houses at the bottom of these fields. Council selling land next to Brighton Town Hall and King Alfred. Woodingdean, Hertford Road, Fairlight, Colombe Road, Portslade, West Hove, Moulescoomb & others have been privatised and the land is now out of local control. All empirical evidence. Our children’s education and future are too important to be entrusted to the vagaries and whims of private enterprise.
It doesn’t say if the fence is to keep the students in or public out?
Closing down the freedom of the field and locking students in or public out doesn’t help anyone in the longer term.
This will not fix the problem but will create more of them.
I agree. This has never been necessary in the past.
This won’t come cheap.
Spend elsewhere on Education surely.
With the Holidays coming up, sure plenty of people will Sunbathe or have a kick around.
It’s got a quote of £317,000!
That’s more than the ” first ” quote to fix the seafront 😂
The £317k is for the total of all 3 option Lots quoted by the suppler. The actual cost for the planning application scope (Lot 1 nly) is £148k.
Can you please explain exactly where this figure has come from? There’s nothing in the planning information which states the cost.
Completely disingenuous of the school to claim they have consulted neighbours. It simply isn’t true. Living just down from the school, with a direct view of this proposed fence, we’ve heard nothing from them at all, let alone been notified about any meetings, nor have neighbours I’ve spoken with…
Likewise. I live exactly opposite where they propose to build a fence in front of my garden and i have only heard about it this from the press.
The school have not contacted us as neighbours – simply not true
Safety of children comes before all the other good things that many of us have enjoyed. I am a local and it will affect me, but it would affect me more if a catastrophic event happened that could have been avoided.
Stringers fence makes it look & feel like a prison … This is more of the same. Maybe razor wire & some watch towers would be add to the aesthetic? Or kids could wear chain mail to school?
Safeguarding is a red herring. Schools now consider the land their asset and want to fully control of access (the college ?! has been trying parcel up & sell off grounds to developer for a dozen houses but blocked).
The irony, a bunch of fa r left academics want a to erect a secure border fence around their land so they can check and control who they let in and who they keep out, but mainly to keep out those that may cause harm or damage, especially to children.