UNION bosses and health staff have spoken of their shock that a new secondary school looks set to be based at Brighton General Hospital.

The Elm Grove hospital has been selected as the preferred option for a free school which is due to open a year later than originally planned in September 2019.

NHS staff were dismayed to learn of the decision via The Argus website rather than from bosses, especially after receiving denials only last year that the move would take place.

Progress on the desperately needed school has been welcomed but concerns have been raised the delay will mean more families not getting their chosen schools next year.

Questions remain about the future of community health despite NHS assurances they will be “retained and enhanced” at a new flexible facility planned for east Brighton.

The need for the school, which will be called The Brighton and Hove Academy, to meet the growing demand of primary pupils accommodated in bulge classes and school expansions was first identified in 2012.

The University of Brighton Academies Trust (UBAT) announced in March 2015 it was looking to open a free school as early as this September.

Delays in securing the site mean it is not scheduled to open until September 2019 but council bosses have made assurances there will be sufficient places at existing schools until its opening.

The Argus understands the school will be in the Grade II listed Arundel Building.

It is considered unlikely the hospital grounds would have suitable space for playing fields with the Race Hill a possible option.

A lack of playing fields was also a major drawback to the alternative site at the Greater Brighton Metropolitan College, which was complicated by City College going through a merger with Northbrook during negotiations.

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust said it was at the “conversation stage” with the council and no final decisions had been made.

Mike Jennings, finance and estates director, said the trust’s primary focus was providing a new, fit for purpose accommodation and any final decisions would not be made until next spring at the earliest.

The University of Brighton said it hoped to appoint a principal for the school, which will accommodate 200 pupils in each year, by next summer.

Councillor Daniel Chapman, children’s committee chairman, said with councils no longer able to open new schools, the authority was working in partnership with the Education and Skills Funding Agency and UBAT.

He said: “We had hoped the new school would be open in September 2018 but because of circumstances beyond our control this has been pushed back. We recognise parents need clarity on admissions arrangements for the future so we will be making an announcement at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Councillor Vanessa Brown, Conservative spokeswoman, said: “It has been quite complicated working with ESFA and the NHS but we are pleased the school will definitely be there.

“Both sites were in the frame but then city college became the MET and it became difficult to have any land there but it was also taking a long time for the health authority to agree to it.”

Councillor Alex Phillips, Green spokeswoman, said the Labour administration had taken far too long on the process with considerable work still ahead.

She said: “Labour’s slow work means kids are being taught in portacabins and means that this year, parents of many students failed to obtain any of their in-catchment preferences as the city’s schools were predictably oversubscribed. We cannot have the same scenario of uncertainty for the next cohort of parents in 2018/19.”

Almost 150 city pupils will start at a school in September which is not one of their three preferences, up 40 per cent, and there are warnings that number will grow again with the delayed opening of the new school.

GMB branch secretary Mark Turner said: “I am absolutely gobsmacked it’s that site. It had basically been ruled out because the trust didn’t want to play ball.

“I’m surprised they have changed their position. The delay is clearly going to cause problems for allocations for 2018/19, its going to be even worse than this year. You are going to have more children travelling across the city.”