Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:32 pm on 25 April 2018.
I strongly support the call for the money to still be available to build a new school. There's no doubt that the pupils of ysgol Dewi Sant desperately need a new school, but I'm afraid that Carmarthenshire County Council have let them down badly in the way they've gone through a process. If you read the business case sent in to the Welsh Government, it's a masterclass in retrospective rationality. It's quite clear that council officials have decided this would be an easy site to build on and worked backward from that assumption. This is green land in a deprived part of Llanelli, and there are alternative sites available, most notably the Heol Goffa site, which is now going to be vacated, with a new school being built in Delta Lakes for the special school. So, I will be asking the planning Minister to call in this application if the village green application is not successful, because this is not the right place to build a school. But a new school is essential, and I hope the Welsh Government gives clear assurances that funding will be available.