Chris Baker reports on the continued loss of school playing fields despite government pledges to stop the sell off.

People living near Varndean College's north Brighton campus first discovered three acres of sports field were about to be lost when letters went out at the end of June.

The college proposed selling the land to make way for 40 homes, which would help fund a £5 million college expansion, needed to cope with an expected surge in student numbers.

The prospect of losing the playing fields angered many people living in the suburbs surrounding Varndean campus, which is home to the sixth-form college, two secondary schools, a junior school, an infant school and a playgroup.

The original timetable would have meant a planning application for the homes going before Brighton and Hove City Council planners in early September.

Christine Hearn, of Varndean Action Committee, which was formed to fight the proposal, said: "People would have come back from their holidays and the decision would have been made. I really think questions need to be asked about that. It is obscene."

The timetable did not follow Government guidelines on selling playing fields, which call for a consultation period of ten term-time weeks.

According to its critics, the college stopped using the land bordering Draxmont Way and Surrenden Road as a sports field last year.

Ms Hearn said: "They are now saying they have to sell it because it is wasteland.

"In my opinion, it is the best pitch on that campus. It was the only pitch that did not flood last winter. Of course, that also makes it the best site for houses."

The anger generated by the college's decision to sell is a reminder of the passion the loss of sports pitches and open space provokes.

No figures were kept on exactly how much land was lost during the Eighties and early Nineties. But a feeling something was going wrong prompted Labour, when in Opposition, to pledge it would halt the sales.

The sell-offs continue, however, despite the promise and despite regulations which insist the Education Secretary must approve any sale.

A total of 170 applications to sell playing fields have subsequently come before ministers since the regulations were introduced in 1998.

Of those, 164 have been approved and only six refused. Varndean College's application could be the 171st to get the ministerial once-over.

Elsa Davies, director of the National Playing Fields Association, said: "Clearly it is not tough enough. What we want to see is really serious action on protecting playing fields. We have not seen it yet and we want to see it sooner rather than later."

According to the association, permission to build is being considered at 13 playing fields used by schools or colleges in East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton and Hove.

Historically, councils in Sussex have a good to middling record. East Sussex County Council said it had has lost only one sports field since 1997, at Beacon Community College, Crowborough, while another at Seaford Community College went in the early Nineties.

West Sussex County Council said it had disposed of eight playing fields at schools it controls since 1991. Brighton and Hove City Council, meanwhile, said it had lost none since it became a unitary authority in 1997.

Varndean College's proposal is a good example of the pressure schools and colleges are under.

With shrinking budgets, selling land is often the only way to fund much-needed improvements.

Varndean can only get 35 per cent of the £5 million it needs for new classrooms, a theatre, a dance unit and general renovation from the Government's Learning and Skills Council, the body that funds further education colleges.

The funding formula has prompted accusations the Government itself is adding to the pressure to sell land.

Principal Alan Jenkins said the college could not afford to borrow and was left with no choice but to sell.

He said: "It would be great if 100 per cent was available and nobody was in this position. But that is not the reality we are in at the moment.

"Clearly this kind of proposal would have to be considered by any college that has this kind of asset."

Councils are hardly any more flush with cash to support refurbishing and expanding schools than the Learning and Skills Council when it comes to further education colleges.

Ms Davies said: "Why should the colleges be using their family silver to underwrite their development?

"The Government must know exactly what it is doing."

Labour MP David Lepper, whose Pavilion constituency includes the college, said the number of applications to sell had fallen dramatically since the Government's regulations were introduced.

He said the shortfall in funding was not helping and he would raise the issue with ministers and in Parliament.

At Varndean, the two sides continue to disagree over the disputed three acres as they wait to see if council planners will back the proposed new homes later this month.

The college does not deny the school holidays got in the way of the planning application but stresses this was not deliberate and there will be too few places for the city's sixth form students if the sell-off is stopped.

Campaigners, meanwhile, have their fingers crossed the Government will block the plan and another playing field will not be lost forever.