Redevelopment plans for run down secondary school hinge on expansion into park

Twm Owen, local democracy reporter

A potential redevelopment of a run down secondary school could require a change to the covenant that protects a nearby park.

St Alban’s Roman Catholic High School is based in a grade II listed building that is thought to be 327 years old, that had major extensions in the 1820s and 1880, and was home to the park’s owners the Hanbury family.

Plans drawn up on behalf of the school would include using what has been described as an “unused” piece of Pontypool Park so the school which is within it could expand, though it’s claimed a council official had attempted to block that.

‘Health and safety risks’

Such is the condition of the building parents, teachers and staff wrote to Torfaen Borough Council earlier this year outlining their concerns, with one describing it as “an environment that poses daily health and safety risks”.

The council has said it has had meetings with the school over a redevelopment and would consider making a contribution.

School governor John Cunningham, who represents the Catholic Archdiocese on Torfaen Borough Council’s education committee, claimed there had been interference in the school’s plan to expand.

He said it’s only option is to redevelop the current site, as there are no suitable alternatives, and that would involve expansion to use a “small, unused piece” of the park.

‘Spoke in the wheel’

But at the committee’s most recent meeting he said a council officer had “put a spoke in the wheel” of the plans.

Mr Cunningham said council leader Anthony Hunt “totally supports” the school seeking to change the covenant, put in place when Pontypool Park was gifted to the public in 1920, so it could use part of the parkland.

But he told councillors: “I think it is most unhelpful an officer of this council should go to the Welsh Government and say that is not going to happen.”

The council was previously involved in protracted, and acrimonious, negotiations with Pontypool Rugby Club before it was eventually allowed to enclose its pitch in the park with a seven foot fence.

Mr Cunningham said that had “created a precedence” and the council shouldn’t stand in the way of the school seeking a similar change.

Faith schools are required to provide 15 per cent of funding for capital works, such as new or replacement buildings, with the majority funded by the Welsh Government.

In May Councillor Richard Clark, the Labour-run council’s cabinet member for education, said it wasn’t in a position to help the Catholic Archdiocese fund a 15 per cent contribution, but talks were ongoing. Cllr Hunt appeared to reiterate that position in October when he said the council couldn’t promise schools “money that doesn’t exist”.

A council spokesperson said it has been supporting the Archdiocese to address issues at St Alban’s for several years but the church hadn’t advanced plans for a school for pupils aged three to 16 in 2017/18 when £1 million from the local authority was on the table.

The spokesperson said: “We are aware of the latest proposal from the Archdiocese and the school and there have been meetings involving both senior politicians and senior officers. The proposal involves an expansion into Pontypool Park. Mr Cunningham has been involved in those discussions in his capacity as a school governor.”

They added though the £1m offer “lapsed when deliverable proposals failed to materialise it would consider making a similar contribution again.”