By Richard Evans

Copyright dailypost

Denbighshire Council’s cabinet has backed £11m plans to extend, refurbish, and redevelop a Denbigh primary school and will now move towards appointing a contractor. The council is looking to extend and refurbish Ysgol Pendref as part of the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme.

The extension and refurbishment will take place on the current school site and will require planning permission. The scheme, agreed at Denbighshire Council’s cabinet meeting on Tuesday, will overhaul facilities on the existing school site on Gwaenynog Road, aiming to deliver modern classrooms and improved learning spaces.

As the pre-tender estimate is above the £2 million threshold, a decision was required by cabinet to approve the next stage of the procurement process and issue a tender. The pre-tender of the cost is estimated at £11m, and the project will be part funded by Welsh Government grants and Denbighshire Council. Sign up for the North Wales Live newslettersent twice daily to your inbox.

At this stage it is unknown how much of the £11m will be grant-funded, so the council is unsure how much of the sum it will need to fund. Consequently, Denbighshire’s options will be to use capital receipts or prudential borrowing, putting further pressure on the council’s revenue budget to finance the debt.

Councillors heard that, because the work will take place on a live school site, construction will be phased to minimise disruption to teaching. Geraint Davies, Denbighshire Council’s head of education, said: “Let me start off with the word exciting, and it certainly is.

“Any investment in education always excites me, and we know that early intervention, early investment, pays off the greatest reward, and £11m, it is a lot of money. It is from various sources. There are two grants we are putting down and also an investment from Denbighshire itself.

“But it is an investment that will continue to reap the benefits of this investment far beyond my time in post and for many years to come.”

He added: “The young people of Denbigh and Denbighshire and the future residents and workers of Denbighshire will obviously benefit from this investment, and it is very exciting, and for the pupils and staff at Ysgol Pendef, I’m sure they are looking forward to this investment becoming a reality.”

Denbigh councillor Delyth Jones agreed. “I’m very excited to join with you in that feeling of excitement,” she said. “This community have been waiting for a long time for this to happen. There is a need for this to happen. Not only for the education and the children in the school, it will benefit the wider community as well, so I do welcome this step.”

But Cllr Barry Mellor had concerns. “At this stage, it is unknown how much of the £11m will be funded by the childcare grant, and therefore it is unknown how much of the £11m will be needed to be funded by DCC,” he said. “How do we get over that bump?”

Mr Davies explained the project would be funded in three parts, with a “sustainable learning for communities grant” paying for 65%. Mr Davies then explained the council could offset some of the remaining 35% as part of that cost against an additional “childcare capital grant”.

But he said Denbighshire wasn’t at the point where it knew how much that Welsh Government grant would be worth. As well as planning permission, SAB approval and Building Control approval are still needed, and the project also requires Welsh Government approval of its business case.

Cllr Alan James proposed councillors backed the scheme; this was seconded by Cllr Barry Mellor, and the cabinet voted unanimously in favour of approving the tender process.

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