Council starts the process of closing primary school

Elgan Hearn, Local democracy reporter.

Senior Blaenau Gwent councillors have agreed to start the legal process to close a primary school site in Abertillery.

At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Labour Cabinet on Monday, February 23, councillors received a report on the proposal to start consulting on cutting the primary school capacity at Abertillery Learning Community (ALC) from 980 to 770 places.

This would be a 21 per cent reduction and would be done by closing the former Roseheyworth Road campus.

As of September 2025, Abertillery Learning Community, which is an all-through school for three- to 16-year-olds, has more than 300 surplus places across the three primary campuses.

Cabinet member for Children, Young People and Families, Cllr Sue Edmunds (Labour – Ebbw Vale South), explained: “The preferred option is to close Roseheyworth Road campus, which has the lowest number of pupils on roll, 127, and the highest levels of backlog maintenance due to the age and condition of the building.

“All pupils currently attending Roseheyworth can be accommodated at the remaining primary sites.”

These are the Tillery Street and Six Bells campuses.

It is expected that Roseheyworth would be closed by September 2027.

Cllr Edmunds continued: “This proposal would benefit ALC in a number of ways.

“It would improve their financial sustainability, enhance education quality, provide for better use of facilities, offer a stronger community and pupil experience, and enable strategic planning for the future.

“Should nothing change due to declining pupil numbers and the current poor financial position of ALC, there is an increased risk to the long-term viability of the school, and this could lead to difficulties in providing educational standards across the campuses.”

She explained that before the closure can take place, the council needs to go through the correct legal process, which starts with a public consultation on the proposal.

This would start on March 2 and carry on until April 12 – which is “20 school days.”

The findings of the consultation would then be reported back to Cabinet, who would again decide on whether to carry on or stop the closure process.

The next stage would be a period for official objections to be received, which is expected to be held in June.

Cabinet member Cllr Tommy Smith (Labour – Sirhowy) said: “At this stage we go to the consultation.”

He recommended doing this, which, when put to the vote, was agreed unanimously by Cabinet.

Dubbed a “super school,” ALC was created in September 2016.

The school came into being following a merger of Roseheyworth Road, Six Bells Road and Tillery Street primary schools, and Abertillery Secondary School.