Welsh Government approve £40m schools investment – but future spending under review

Alec Doyle, Local Democracy Reporter

More than £40 million of Welsh Government investment has been approved to deliver the first phase of a council’s £52.6m school modernisation programme.

But the Senedd has asked Wrexham Council to resubmit outline plans to modernise ten additional schools at a cost of just over £57m – which includes provisional Sustainable Communities for Learning grant support of around £38.6m.

Lead Member for Educaton Cllr Phil Wynn confirmed to Wrexham County Borough Council’s Executive Board this week that central funding for works to replace St Mary’s Church in Wales School in Brymbo, St Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School in the city centre, St Christopher’s School in Hightown for children with complex needs and transition of Haulfan Pupil Referral Unit in Rhosddu to an upgraded home in Johnstown has been approved.

Through the Sustainable Communities for Learning programme the Welsh Government will provide grant funding totalling £41,010,000 for the four projects.

“We’re committing over £50 million to new school builds over the next few years and that has to be celebrated,” said Cllr Wynn.

“The four projects were originally identified in the former 21st Century Schools programme. The Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme has superseded that and these four projects transitioned into phase one of that scheme.

“Last year, we applied to Welsh Government for four business cases for those projects. We were successful in securing agreements in principle on all four.

“For the remainder of this year officers will be working on the revised strategic outline plan which will take on board changes that have taken place in the last three years.

“The outline plan that was submitted previously isn’t set in stone. There will be schemes there that may not proceed. There will be schemes in phase two and three that will be brought forward and there will be new schemes that we are likely to bring forward to recognise the change in pupil numbers going forward.”

Of the phase one projects that are moving forward the two new build faith school projects will cost £7.8 million each and be 85% funded by Welsh Government.

St Mary’s in Brymbo will receive £1.7m from the Wrexham Parochial Educational Foundation to make up its funding while St Mary’s in Wrexham will receive the same amount from the Diocese of Wrexham.

The other two schools will be funded by the council, with the £35m construction of the new St Christophers project receiving £8.75m from the authority while the £2m upgrade to Haulfan PRU will receive £500,000.

Work on Haulfan’s new home – on the former  Ysgol Yr Hafod site –  is already underway, with the PRU due to open in September this year. The other three projects will now require planning permission before work can begin, with the two St Mary’s expected to be open in September 2028 and St Christophers anticipated to be open by September 2029.

Rossett Cllr Hugh Jones highlighted that St Peter’s Church in Wales Primary School had not been included in the original modernisation programme despite being 77-years-old. Cllr Wynn pledged officers would reconsider the school for inclusion in the revised plan.

In addition to noting the progress of the scheme so far, the Executive Board also supported an amendment from deputy leader Cllr Dave Bithell to include a strategic condition survey report of all school buildings in Wrexham County Borough by January 2027 to give councillors a full picture of the physical state of all the authority’s school sites.