Colwyn Bay school will be sold for £1m

Sep 23 2010 by Rayyan Parry, North Wales Weekly News

Ysgol y Graig

PLANS to sell a Colwyn Bay school have been met with upset and anger.

At a meeting last week, Conwy’s cabinet approved funding to rebuild Ysgol y Gogarth in Llandudno.

The special education school will benefit from £15m thanks to Welsh Assembly funding.

But plans also include proposals to sell the Ysgol y Graig site in Old Colwyn for £1.15m

Money from the sale would go towards the rebuild of Ysgol y Gogarth.

But the plans have been met with anger from councillors who say they have been left in the dark about the developments.

Cllr Cheryl Carlisle said that no plans have been put forward to ensure where up to 40 pupils from Ysgol y Graig would be relocated.

Speaking after the meeting, she said: “I attended cabinet to ask education chiefs Geraint James and Wyn Jones what they propose to do for these disaffected young people.

“We asked where they were going to be relocated to, where are the plans, how much were the costings, and what budgets these costs would come out of.

“I asked who would foot this budget – would it be the education department or the individual schools, in which case this would lead to teacher job losses or huge hikes in council tax.

“There were obviously no costings, as there are no plans. How on earth the cabinet could pass this is a mystery.”

Cllr Brian Cossey added it was a plan built on quicksand: “I fully support the upgrade of Ysgol y Gogarth.

“My main concern is what’s going to happen to the young people being educated at the old Ysgol y Graig site. They haven’t got a plan in place and there should be.”

But head of education Geraint James responded that the council needed to secure WAG funding before any plans were put in place.

He said: “The next stage is to investigate options for relocation of the facility and to cost the options.”

He added that changes wouldn’t impact on job losses: “The alternative education provision provides an education for those pupils whose needs result in them being unable to access mainstream provision.

“Consequently the number of staff reflect the number of pupils from year to year who need support. Relocation will have no impact on this.”

Costings of the relocation will be consulted on at a future meeting.