Just a month after its official opening the new John Bentley School sixth form centre has been named the best new building in the west of England.

The £700,000 building was nominated by Wiltshire Council Building Control and beat off competition from all the other local authorities in the region, including a multi-million pound project in Bath, to win the Building Excellence Award.

The new centre, which houses an open plan common room, study area, two computer rooms, kitchen and conference room, aims to cater for the current 150 sixth form students, with a view to accommodating 190 students by 2013.

Post 16 director Mel Sutton said: “It is a fantastic building and the students love it.

“It has been something we have worked on with the governors and the students.

“We spent hours trying to make it perfect and it shows our investment in them.

“My office is just off the main room and my door is always open if they need anything or just want a chat - I wanted to be in the middle of it all.”

The building was partially designed by sixth form students, allowing them to get involved in all aspects of the planning, and the current students could not wait to start using the facility last month.

Year 12 student Sally Chalker said: “It is a great new aspect to the school, especially for Post 16 students, but it also gives the younger students something to look up to and aim for.”Philip Stuart-Harris of Bailey’s Partnership, who won the contract for the building, said: “This award is a credit to the hard work put in by the whole team.

“The school set a clear and consistent brief to Bailey’s Partnership as their designer, project and cost managers and worked very well with us to evolve the design, encouraging valuable early input from students.

“Local contractor Rigg Construction made a major contribution in delivering this excellent project on site to a very high quality within the expected cost.

“All involved are rightly proud of this first-class Post 16 facility that can officially be called the best education project in the west of England.”

The award was presented by Alex Lovell from BBC Points West, and was received on behalf of the school by bursar John Lawrence, with Tom Murphy and Ryan Parker from Bailey’s Partnership and Pete Burgess of Rigg Construction.

As regional winner the Post 16 Centre will now go on to compete in Local Authority Building Control National Building Excellence Awards, which will be held in London later this year.

More than 100 people gathered to watch explorer and broadcaster Monty halls open the building in May.