AT a meeting of Blaenau Gwent Council’s planning committee on Thursday, February 3, councillors unanimously approved a proposal by the authority itself to build a new 360-place primary school and 52 place ‘day nursery’ childcare facility.

The new school will be built on the site of the former Glyncoed Comprehensive School off Badminton Grove, Ebbw Vale.

The scheme is part of £26 million worth of investment in the county borough schools up to 2025. It is expected that the new school will open in 2023 and will also provide a range of community and sport facilities which can be separate from the main school A multi-use  games area will also be built to the eastern boundary behind the primary school.

According to the report the proposed school will be a direct replacement of the existing nearby Glyncoed Primary School, which has fallen into a state of disrepair.

The new development will be bigger than the current primary school, which has 305 primary school spaces and 53 day nursery childcare places, and employs 29 staff.

Planning case officer Joanne White, who recommended the plans should be approved, told councillors that the authority is exploring whether the scheme could become “net zero.”

A recent announcement by the Welsh Government suggested that proposals for Net Zero Carbon schools could receive 100 per cent funding from their 21st Centuries Schools funding pot.

Cllr Bernard Willis said:

“I welcome this development and any investment we have every made in education and will support it fully.

“My only concern regarding all schools not just this one, is parking and dropping off.

“Are we comfortable with the amount of parking at this site?

“It seems to me that there’s been a bit of a scrabble to get bits of land together to form parking and drop off zones.”

He added some parents parked up two hours before school finishes so they could be sure of getting a spot.

Highways authority representative Mark Hopkins said:

“I totally understand,. There are parking and congestion issues at most schools.

“With this one we’ve tried to alleviate it as much as we can.

“We’ve incorporated a drop off zone, that is off the highway and can be controlled by the school.”

He added a gate could stop people turning up early, and traffic regulation orders were in existence to deal with other problems.

Cllr Wayne Hodgins said: “It’s nice to see we are pushing ahead with our school’s improvement programme.”

Cllr Godfrey Thomas added: “I welcome the development, it looks lovely.

“We need schools where people are living, you can’t build them all on the edge of a mountain.”