Welshpool has “two of the best schools in the UK”

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Welshpool can now “boast” two of the finest primary schools “in Wales if not the whole UK,” despite all the problems to get them built.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Cabinet today (Tuesday), councillors agreed the extra £150,000 to cover the building costs of Welshpool Church in Wales school.

As we reported last week, that will see the costs for the 360-space Church in Wales Primary School come to £11.731 million.

The cabinet also agreed to review both the Church in Wales and Ysgol Gymraeg y Trallwng building projects to learn lessons from the problems that had hampered the schemes and saw them eventually split into two separate projects.

Education Portfolio Holder, Cllr Pete Roberts, said: “This is the final report on the additional funding required to be transferred to balance the books in respect of the Church in Wales School project. Also, to establish a review into the funding and the problems that occurred.”

When completed, the lessons learned review will be shared with staff and brought to Cabinet and the Governance and Audit committee.

Interim Director of Corporate Services, Emma Palmer, told councillors that building Ysgol Gymraeg y Trallwng was expected to cost less than anticipated and this would effectively balance out the £150,000 overspend.

Powys County Councillor for Welshpool Llanerchydol ward, Cllr Graham Breeze said: “There are people outside of this authority who may choose to reflect that their delaying tactics have led to great costs to the taxpayers of this county.

“We owe an apology to the many young students who were looking forward to moving into these state-of-the-art buildings and never got a chance due to the delays.

“Some of the issues were clearly beyond control such as companies going out of business and Covid-19 but nevertheless there are lots of lessons to be learnt.

“The good news is that the town of Welshpool boasts two of the finest educational facilities in Wales and indeed UK, something our children and staff have waited so long and patiently for.”

He added that the schools were a “shining example” to the rest of the county of the merits of “school modernisation and transformation”.

Cllr Breeze also urged the Cabinet to fund improvements to Welshpool High School’s facilities.

School Transformation Manager, Marianne Evans, said: “I’d like to point out there’s far more robust governance around the programme than when we started this in 2015/2016.

“We will continue to learn with each project as we go forward.”

The new school buildings were approved back in January 2017 with the total costs of £13.7million agreed by the Welsh Government in December that year.

But problems with the projects started in 2018 when Cadw confirmed that Ysgol Maesydre had been given Grade II listed status after being contacted by people concerned that the former site of Welshpool Grammar School would be demolished.

This saw the council come up with a new scheme to build a 150-place school incorporating Maesydre rather than demolishing it.

In 2019, Dawnus, the firm who were meant to build the schools, went bust leaving the Church in Wales School partially built on Salop Road.

Further problems have then been caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the costs of building materials driven up by inflation and the cost of living crisis.

In January 2021, pupils first entered the new Church in Wales primary school.

Earlier this month the Ysgol Gymraeg y Trallwng moved into its new home.