PLANS to close two primary schools in Rhondda Cynon Taf and amalgamate them in a new £9m community school are set to take another step forward.

The council’s cabinet will consider moving plans to join Cefn Primary School and Craig yr Hesg Primary School in Glyncoch to the next stage of consultation at its meeting on Monday, March 21.

The plans would see the closing of the two existing primary schools and the opening of a new, bigger community primary school to replace them.

The next stage of the consultation process will be to issue a notice which will trigger the start of the objection period.

The new school would be funded by the council and Welsh Government
via the Mutual Investment Model funding stream.

This involves the private sector building and maintaining public assets and in return the council, supported by funding from the Welsh Government, will pay a fee to the private company which will cover the cost of construction, building maintenance and financing the project and at the end of the contract the asset goes back to the council.

In December last year, cabinet agreed to start consulting on the proposals.

The cabinet report said that out of the 34 responses received, 25 were in agreement, six were against, two were unsure and one did not provide a response.

Overall, 74% were in favour of the proposal to build a new school, the report said

The cabinet area said the aim of the proposals is “to increase capacity and improve the quality of primary education provision available to learners in the Glyncoch area of Rhondda Cynon Taf”.

If agreed, and subject to the matter not being called in for consideration by
scrutiny, the notice will be published on April 4 and will allow for a minimum 28-day period for objections, ending on May 11.

If any objections are received during this period, an objections report will be written. This will then be reported to a future meeting of cabinet, in June or July, for members to make a final decision.