Plans for a new 800-pupil secondary school in Burgess Hill are expected to be approved when councillors meet tonight.

The school will be built on 12.5 hectares of farmland opposite The Triangle leisure centre in Jane Murray Way.

The plans have been submitted to Mid Sussex District Council.

They show the sports facilities would include four hard court areas, one large and three small football pitches, a medium-sized rugby pitch, artificial and grass cricket facilities and nets, and a grass athletics track.

The buildings would include a sixth form centre, four-court sports hall with changing facilities, a dance studio and assembly hall/theatre, offices, a dining area, kitchens and music rooms.

There would be a learning resources facility, common rooms and a roof garden.

Outline planning permission for development of the school and adjoining area was granted in August 1994.

It provided for a secondary school and the development of the adjacent land to the south and south-east for 435 homes, a leisure centre, a doctors' surgery and distributor road.

If the plans are finalised the development would be carried out by West Sussex County Council in conjunction with the governors of St Paul's Catholic College in Haywards Heath.

The county council said it would provide improved accommodation for the college, which would relocate from its present "constrained" site at Oathall Avenue, Haywards Heath, and provide a school for children from Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and the surrounding area.