A £5 million plan to build a new school and integrated children’s centre at Trefonnen in Llandrindod Wells has been delayed until the new year.
It will be discussed at a Powys County Council budget seminar on January 6 when members will consider it among other projects bidding for capital funding.
A final decision on whether the plan will go ahead is expected to be taken at the first Board meeting of 2009, on January 13.
Headteacher of Trefonnen, David Underhill, said the school was deeply disappointed that the plan has been delayed.
“I feel the pupils are being used as political pawns really. It seems to me that the only valid reason for this is to do with budgetary issues but we have been in the plan for a long, long, long time. It has been mentioned in previous board reports and it’s not as if it suddenly came up on people.
“My biggest worry is it will not go ahead at all, because we have been passed over so many times before. There has been so many occasions when Trefonnen has been let down. It’s time they thought of the children.
“To me it’s an unnecessary delay because it’s been mentioned previously and they must have known the cost.
“I am very much behind the plan itself because it’s so good for the children and families of this area. It would provide what they need well into the future.
“If it came to be done fairly quickly we would be one of the first schools in Powys of this kind with a true community model.”
Councillor Gary Price said: “I am a little disappointed that the Board of Powys County Council deferred a decision on the future of Trefonnen School. It’s a pity they could not have made a decision as the project as been on-going for so many years. Once again politics has been put before the children.”
Board members were told at a meeting on Tuesday that the plan would see an integrated, educational and community facility with a wide range of benefits for pupils, families and the wider community.
Work may be able to start on the project in May 2009 with the completion of the new 270-place school and children centre facilities likely by September 2010.
Councillor David Jones, portfolio holder for schools and inclusion, said the Board had already agreed to build a new Trefonnen School, although initially the plan had just been to rebuild it.
“Everyone knows the state of Trefonnen School,” he said. “It was built in the 1970s when teaching styles were very different. It’s open plan so if one class has a music lesson the whole school has a music lesson.”
He said the Board had agreed that Trefonnen would be dealt with as soon as money became available.
“I would not like to go back to the governors, staff and pupils at Trefonnen and say there is yet another delay. This is an integral part of the modernisation of schools policy in Powys,” he added.
