Council Confirms £6m Spent On Stalled Burgess Hill School Project Cannot Be Recovered

West Sussex County Council has confirmed it cannot recover the £6 million already spent on plans for a new secondary school in Burgess Hill.

The council announced in August that proposals for Bedelands Academy — which was set to form part of a new ‘all-through’ primary and secondary school on the 3,500-home Brookleigh development — had been put on hold due to lower-than-expected demand for secondary school places.

During a full council meeting on Friday (October 17), councillor Richard Cherry (Lib Dem,

Burgess Hill East) asked about the £5.9 million already spent on the project.

In a written response, Jacquie Russell, cabinet member for children, young people and learning, said the money had been used for the planning and design stages of the scheme.

She explained:

“There is no foundation on which to recover costs as the funds were spent on instructed services relating to the development of this scheme.”

The work remains the council’s intellectual property, and officials say the project could resume in the future if pupil numbers increase.

The land identified for the school remains protected for educational use for the next 15 years, under an agreement between Mid Sussex District Council, Homes England, and the county council.

While the secondary school plans are paused, the primary school element of Bedelands Academy is still expected to be delivered by Homes England, the master developer of the Brookleigh site.

In the meantime, The Burgess Hill Academy will take on an additional 90 pupils for the 2026/27 academic year.

Mrs Russell confirmed that £960,000 of Section 106 funding allocated to the school will be used for improvement works to accommodate the extra children.