The site of an independent school due to close next month should be taken over by the council, councillors have said.

Calls have been made for the main building of St Mary's Hall girls school, in Eastern Road, Kemp Town, Brighton, to be converted to a new secondary to ease the pressure on places for the city's eleven-year-olds.

The site currently belongs to rival independent school Roedean, which took over cash-strapped St Mary's this year.

Roedean plans to keep the modern junior school on the site open but will leave the main senior school buildings empty when the remaining 300 pupils move on at the end of term.

In an interview with a national newspaper, Roedean headmistress Frances King admitted it was unlikely to be sold for development at a time when prices were so low.

Green Party members of Brighton and Hove City Council have now submitted a request for it to look into the possibility of buying the buildings.

Councillor Ben Duncan, who proposed the idea, said: "Parents are crying out for new secondary school facilities in central or East Brighton and from September there’ll be a perfectly good secondary school sitting empty in Kemp Town.”

The controversial closure of the failing Comart secondary school, in Wilson Avenue, Brighton, in 2005 left an wide area of Brighton without a nearby school.

In turn it created pressure on places at popular secondaries elsewhere which prompted a review of how children were allocated schools and led to the introduction of a lottery decider system.

The council said it was not in a position to concentrate on Coun Duncan's proposal.

However councillor Vanessa Brown, the cabinet member for children and young people, said all options would be considered.

Coun Brown said: "We are not doing anything with regard to that site at the moment but we will always look at sites which become available depending on the need for numbers in that area."

Calls were also recently made for more primary school places to be found in Kemp Town and St Mary's Hall could now be considered as a possible site.

Coun Duncan said: "I hope we can find a way to open it up and use it to offer some children a free comprehensive education without having to trek across the city for it.”

Coun Brown said the council was concentrating its efforts on finding a site for a new primary in Hove where a major shortage has been acknowledged.