A PLAN to build a new £7.4m Welsh medium primary school on Barry Waterfront has been announced by the Vale council.

The school would cater for 420 school pupils and have 96 nursery places.

The council’s cabinet, on Monday December 17 (December 10) will be asked to approve a period of public consultation on a proposal that would see Ysgol St Baruc, which currently has capacity for 210 children, relocated to a new building with double the space.

The council say demand for a bilingual education in Barry has increased by more than a quarter in the last ten years.

Current projections suggest that the ongoing Barry Waterfront development will further add to this demand.

It is also anticipated that the council’s strategy to promote bilingual education in line with Welsh Government’s ‘Cymraeg 2050’ agenda will further increase the demand for Welsh medium places in future years.

Vale council leader Cllr John Thomas said: “Welsh medium education is increasing in popularity and has seen significant growth since Ysgol Gymraeg Bro Morgannwg opened in 2000.

“The council needs to plan its school provision in line with this.

“A new Welsh medium primary school on the Waterfront will remove the need for many pupils and parents to travel across the town to school each day.

“Alongside a remodelling of school catchment areas elsewhere in Barry this will lead to an increase in spaces at other schools.”

The current Ysgol St Baruc is housed in a Victorian building and a two classroom block built in the 1980s.

The council say the school is on a very confined sloping site with no prospect of any significant expansion. The classrooms are too small for the number of pupils and the school currently uses the dining facilities at the adjacent High Street Primary School as there are no catering facilities on site.

Establishing a new primary school on the Waterfront is likely to lead to changes to the catchment areas of High Street, Holton and Ysgol St Baruc Primary schools.

If the recommendations of the report are agreed by cabinet on December 17, the public consultation will run from January 8, 2019 to February 22, 2019.