The leader of the Plaid Cymru opposition group on Caerphilly County Borough Council has questioned why the Labour-run authority has yet to ask the Welsh Government for financial help over the asbestos scare at Cwmcarn High School.
Councillor Colin Mann raised the issue on Tuesday night when the authority held a special meeting following publication of a report on the extent of asbestos at the school.
Cllr Mann said: “The council has set aside £1.5m so that pupils from Cwmcarn can be educated at Coleg Gwent in Ebbw Vale in the short-term.
“But it is important to look to the long-term. I was surprised to be told that although the school was shut on October 12, the Labour administration had not yet approached the Welsh Government for funding for an acceptable long-term solution.
“I can say that if Plaid had remained in control of the authority this would have been done by now. Officers have been extremely busy dealing with the technical issues but an approach should have been made by the politicians.
“Parents naturally feel strongly that a replacement school is needed at Cwmcarn and that is why action is needed now.”
The school, which has 900 pupils, was closed suddenly on October 12 after contractors discovered the material. After a partial re-opening, the majority of students are now being taught at Coleg Gwent’s former campus in Ebbw Vale.
At the council meeting on Tuesday, a statement from the Health and Safety Executive was read out.
The body has said it had concerns the report’s findings may have been misinterpreted by contractors and onthat its own investigations were continuing.
Could this be due to the fact that Cwmcarn High School is a foundation school?.
So who actually owns the land,the school is built on, word has it that Lord Llanover stated in his will that the land where the old Monestery was built (where the school now stand) was to be left for only educational purposes only. so why havent this been looked into to find out if it is true, the school needs to go back, it makes up the community if cwmcarn it is the heart and soul of the valley and without it there the small village will crumble.