Pembrokeshire County Council’s cabinet has approved proposals for school improvement in Milford Haven including preferred options for redevelopment and establishing a new 3-11 Welsh medium school.

A combined new primary and secondary school building is proposed on the existing secondary school site, with some sharing of services such as kitchen and sports areas, along with a 40 place Flying Start centre and 36 place secondary Learning Resource Centre.

This replaces previous options for refurbishment of both Milford Haven School and Milford Haven CP School.

A Strategic Outline Case (SOC) will be submitted to Wesh Government for the development of a 3-11 Welsh medium school in Milford Haven.

The ttotal estimated cost of the preferred options is £141,598,965, with £46.5million to be funded by Pembrokeshire County Council’s Capital programme.

Cabinet Member for Education and the Welsh Language Cllr Guy Woodham said at the meeting on July 7: “The Milford Haven Schools redevelopment represents the largest investment in the school estate undertaken by the Council. It will address significant concerns regarding the condition of the two current schools and will enable Milford Haven CP School to operate on a single site.

“The co-location of the English medium primary and secondary schools will bring economies of scale by combining certain facilities and will provide an opportunity to develop an ‘all-through’ school if desired at some point in the future.

“A new Welsh medium primary school will address the demand evident in the wider Milford Haven area and will enable the catchment of Ysgol Caer Elen in Haverfordwest to be extended northwards and eastwards, both thereby making a significant contribution to meeting the targets set out in the Council’s WESP (Welsh in Education Strategic Plan).”

Cabinet unanimously backed the proposals and welcomed the investment into Milford Haven.

Local member and Cabinet Member for Residents’ Services, Cllr Rhys Sinnett added: “This is a great day. I think this has been such a long time coming, the redevelopment can’t come quickly enough.”