New schools in Milford Haven won’t be built before 2030 at the earliest, and 2032 for a planned Welsh Medium school, councillors have heard.

The timeline was stated during discussions at Pembrokeshire County Council’s May meeting on educational matters in the county, including a revised governance arrangements for the sustainable communities for learning programme and planning for the future of Welsh medium education in the Milford Haven area.

At the meeting, Cllr Viv Stoddart reflected on a recent school panel visit to Milford Haven, saying a later private talk with pupils showed they were “acutely aware and acutely embarrassed by the situation in their school,” feeling like they were “second-class citizens”.

“Where does the school for Milford Haven sit? Is there a date for it? The state of the school has actually been a concern since 2012.”

Cllr Guy Woodham, who had earlier announced he was stepping down from his Cabinet education role, said he felt a personal disappointment to be stepping down before there was “a spade in the ground”.

He told members his understanding was the outline business case was due to be submitted to Welsh Government in June.

Mike Cavanagh, Head of Culture, Leisure, and School Modernisation told members the to-date £143m scheme needed a robust business case to Welsh Government, which had to be followed to gain approximately two-thirds funding; the final business case expected in 2027, with hopes the English Medium element of the new school would be built in 2030, and a new Welsh Medium in 2032.

In relation to Welsh medium education in the Milford area, a report for members said a 2025 Cabinet meeting had backed the Director of Education be given approval to commence the school organisation process to establish a new 3-11 Welsh medium school in Milford Haven, with a decision now sought to commence statutory consultation.

It said there were currently 19 Welsh-medium schools in Pembrokeshire, but no Welsh-medium school physically located within Milford Haven itself, one of Pembrokeshire’s largest population centres.

It said: “The establishment of a new Welsh-medium primary school in Milford Haven would address the demand evident within the wider Milford Haven area and provide an opportunity to review and rebalance Welsh-medium catchment boundaries.”

Members backed the recommendation to commence statutory consultation on establishing a new Welsh medium primary school to serve the Milford Haven area.