The council had planned a new £17m building to provide a 132 place bilingual special school provision for children and young people aged between 3 and 20.
The building was to have been constructed on a portion of the old works site on Copperworks Road in Llanelli close to the recently constructed Ysgol Pen Rhos.
The council had previously described the current Heol Goffa special school as oversubscribed and “outdated”.
Llanelli MP, Dame Nia Griffiths has said the council has since decided to cancel the planned new school for budgetary reasons – a decision she has described as the “wrong choice”.
Dame Nia said: “The decision by Plaid Cymru and Independent controlled Carmarthenshire County Council to abandon longstanding plans to build a new school for Ysgol Heol Goffa is a betrayal of the young people of Llanelli and a slap in the face for pupils, parents, staff and future generations of children from across the County.
“Ysgol Heol Goffa is a school where dedicated staff provide an amazing education for children with very complex needs. A brand new, state of the art replacement should be a top priority for everyone concerned so that pupils can have the best start in the life that they possibly can. To see it cynically ditched by the Council at this late stage will leave people rightly feeling shocked and deeply disappointed.
“I am vigorously opposed to this decision. The current Council leadership really need to think again on this proposal which would see some of our County’s most vulnerable young people being left behind.”
Carmarthenshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Education and Welsh Language – Cllr Glynog Davies said: “Given the current economic climate and the financial strains upon the Local Authority, the cost for building a new special school to replace Heol Goffa is not financially viable.
“Carmarthenshire County Council firmly believes that children and young people have a fundamental right to access quality education and I would like to reassure parents that we are working hard on developing alternative proposals that will serve the needs of our learners whilst aligning more closely with the Council’s strategic vision and Welsh Government’s ALN Transformation Programme.”
The Headteacher of Ysgol Heol Goffa, Miss Ceri Hopkins said: “As a school we are obviously very disappointed with the Council’s decision not to proceed with plans to develop a much-needed new school building for Heol Goffa.
“Sadly, we are all too aware of the severe financial pressures facing everyone, the County Council included. That said, we will be working closely with the Council following assurances that improvements will be carried out to improve our current school building, and we look forward to the future plans for delivering specialist provision education that is appropriate to meet the needs of the most vulnerable learners across the authority.”
Carmarthenshire Council say a full assessment of the current school building is due to be carried out in order to identify and deliver improvement works to the existing building.
(Lead image: Google Maps)
