A local council has put forward five school building projects for Welsh government funding, totalling around £106million.

Neath Port Talbot councillors approved the idea at the latest cabinet board meeting, which if approved, would see more than £100million spent on five local projects.

Neath Port Talbot councillors have agreed to put forward for Welsh Government funding five school building projects with indicative costs totalling around £106.2m.

The five projects are:

  • A replacement secondary school for more than 850 learners to be built on the playing fields of Llangatwg Comprehensive. On completion, the existing buildings will be demolished to make way for new playing fields.
  • A replacement primary school at Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Rhosafan. It is proposed to replace the school with a new build school to accommodate increased numbers of Welsh-medium pupils in the area.
  • Another replacement primaru school for 465 pupils at Tywyn Primary and others with severe learning difficluties. The new building will sit on the current playing fields, with new playing fields being built later.
  • A new Welsh-medium primary school for 481 pupils at Ysgol Gymraeg Newydd Dwyrain, after a review of Welsh-medium provision identified the need for a new school.
  • A new build middle school for nearly 1,150 pupils to be built on the playing fields of St Joseph’s RC School and Sixth Form Centre and St. Joseph’s Catholic Junior School

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The Welsh Government’s Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme supports capital build projects for new and replacement schools.

Since 2014, the council has significantly benefitted from the funding, enabling around £200m of capital investment to be made in new school builds.

Cllr Nia Jenkins, Neath Port Talbot Council’s cabinet member for education, skills and training said: “Projects proposed for this next phase of investment aim to address the poorest condition school buildings. There are many more schemes that will still need to be tackled with the support of future funding initiatives.

“Through these projects, the council will also seek to address Welsh in Education Plan targets to increase the number of pupils accessing Welsh-medium education, as well as addressing challenges of providing specialist education for pupils with Additional Learning Needs.”