School build costs have shot up by £3.1m

Constructing a £12.7 million special school for youngsters, mostly from Montgomeryshire, has highlighted the need for a second special school to serve the south of Powys.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Learning and Skills committee on Thursday, January 16 councillors and lay members received a final report on the application for Welsh Government funding to build a new special school near Newtown.

Costs of building a new 84 pupil school next to Brynllywarch Hall in Kerry have shot up by over £3.5 million from the original  £9.1 million back in 2020.

The Welsh Government are expected to provide £9.548 million while the council will need to stump up  £3.182 million.

Cllr Angela Davies (Liberal Democrats) said: “The location and the catchment of the school was confirmed back in 2018/2019.

“Post Covid-19 and the challenges our pupils now face, are we still confident five years on that it’s still the best location?”

Head of school transformation, Marianne Evans said: “At the time this was the best one of the lot, the services are already there, and the site is in council ownership.

“The majority of pupils come from Montgomeryshire, and it serves the demand.”

Brynllywarch is also resonsible for a satellite unit called Bryn Bach.

This unit has classrooms within Ysgol Maesydderwen secondary school in Ystradgynlais.

Eight pupils from the Ystradgynlais and Brecon area go there.

Powys Independents Cllr Gareth E Jones said: “How are the needs of children from Builth (Wells), Crickhowell, Gwernyfed with BESD (Behavioural Emotional and Social Difficulties) going to be met.

“Looking at the sustainable Powys policies it says that services should be accessible within one hour of travel.

“There is no way on earth people from my ward (Llanelwedd) will be able to get to Brynllywarch in an hour.”

ALN (additional learning needs) and inclusion service manager Simon Anderson replied: “We’re not seeing the need arise from those areas currently.

“Thie distance is an issue that we’re very aware of, specialist transport is provided to Brynllywarch.”

Ms Evans added: “If we are going to stick to that (sustainable Powys) principle then consideration must be given to equity across the county and whether we need a second site.”

She explained that children are already travelling for over an hour to get to Brynllywarch.

Conservative group leader, Cllr Aled Davies who was part of the previous administration’s Cabinet who agreed project said: “It’s been a long time coming.”

He pointed out that Brynllywarch Hall is “crumbling around people’s ears.”

The scheme has been beset with problems for several years.

Last September it was revealed that the firm that developed plans to build a new £9.1 million special school on land next to the Grade II (Two) listed hall, ISG Construction had gone bust.

The council had parted ways on the project a year earlier as the proposal costs under ISG had spiralled to over £15million.

The planning application for the new school builing faced opposition locally with 34 objections including one from Kerry Community Council against the scheme.

In June 2023  the process was halted as Welsh Government planning inspectors considered a request to call in the application and take over the process of deciding the application.

Despite this, the plans were approved by the council’s Planning committee in January 2024

In March last year Welsh Government planning inspectors confirmed they would not be “calling in” the application which allowed the planning approval  to come into force.

The updated funding proposal is expected to go before a meeting of the Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet on February 4 with comments from the scrutiny committee to be included in the report.

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporting Service