Varndean College in Brighton should be wary about selling land on its campus to meet part of the cost of an extension.

The extension itself will take up room. The sale will lead to three acres of precious greenery going for housing.

When East Sussex County Council was in charge of Brighton and Hove schools, it made them bad through getting rid of land. Some schools are now seriously short of space as a result.

Popular schools such as Varndean, Hove Park and Blatchington Mill are all under pressure to expand as demand increases.

It may seem the easy way out to sell some of their land to raise money but it should be stoutly resisted.

New school buildings are already making such serious inroads into green spaces that there is little room for sports pitches.

In a land-locked city, the green areas of schools are precious, not only for the pupils, but also for the wider community which is increasingly using school campuses.

There will be strong opposition to this proposal and rightly so. Once the green fields have gone, they can never be used again.

Varndean is an excellent college with an enviable reputation. But it will either have to find the money from elsewhere or scale down its extension. The sale must not go ahead.