Pupils at Ysgol Heol Goffa have one worry about their new school: it may be too small before it opens.
The Llanelli special school has 133 children in a building meant for 118. The new one will hold 150.
Fifteen senior pupils put that to Carmarthenshire County Council in July. The council admits it was their biggest concern.
Parents said the same. Nearly half of the 46 people who responded raised size, and the four who objected did so because 150 was too few, not because they opposed the school.
Cabinet decides on Monday whether to publish the legal notice on 17 November. That is the next step towards opening in September 2029 on land next to Ysgol Pen Rhos.
“Could quickly become oversubscribed”
Respondents warned the school “could quickly become oversubscribed” and asked for room to grow. The council says 150 is “appropriate and deliverable” and affordable.
It is 32 places more than the current capacity. It is only 17 more than the children already there.
The council also points to new autism places at Canolfan y Môr and in mainstream primaries. Predicting demand for special school places, it says, is “inherently difficult”.
Estyn is on the council’s side. It says the plan “is likely to strengthen specialist ALN provision in Carmarthenshire” and will cut the number of children sent out of county for a place.
The inspectorate says the school has been full “for several years” and the county has no spare specialist places at all. Last November it found classrooms too small for wheelchair users.
The pool and the respite centre have gone
This is attempt number two. The council binned a 120-place school in May 2024 because of cost, 9,000 people signed a petition, and a bigger school on a cheaper design came back a year later.
The saving came from cutting the hydrotherapy pool and the respite centre, which the council calls “high cost elements”.
The money is still not in the bank. The council wants the Welsh Government to pay 75%, the top rate for special schools, and will find the rest itself.
Both depend on a business case that has not yet been approved.
That gap caused a row in June, when Labour talked of a “£35m black hole”. Education cabinet member Cllr Glynog Davies admitted neither share was signed off but said there was “no intention to pull out now”.
Llanelli MP Dame Nia Griffith wrote to the education minister asking her to guarantee the 75%. Even Estyn says more detail “on overall costs and long-term affordability could have been provided”.
The council says that detail will come with the business case.
Why it has to move
The new site is over a mile away, which is why the council has to go through a formal process at all. It owns the land and says the old school site will come back to it once the children leave.
The move would be phased, with families and staff involved, the council says.
Still no nurse
A new building does not end the other fight at Heol Goffa. Parents and town councillors have spent more than five years asking for a nurse on site.
Cllr Shaun Greaney said this month that four pupils had died in six months. The council said no link should be drawn to nursing “without clear clinical evidence”.
Hywel Dda University Health Board says its community nursing team and staff training cover the school. Welsh Government guidance on medical care in schools is not due until 2027.
Nursing did not come up in the consultation. The council promises therapy and sensory rooms and a school that works “with local services, including health and social care”, but who staffs them is still unanswered.
What happens next
If cabinet agrees, the notice goes up on 17 November for 28 days. Anyone who wants to object formally has to write in again, because summer responses do not count.
Objections go to cabinet, then full council for the final say. Planning permission comes after that.
Discover more from Swansea Bay News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
