The construction of the £27m Cefn Saeson Comprehensive School in Cimla, Neath, has reached a crucial stage with much of the building’s steel structure now clearly visible.
Guests including Neath Port Talbot Council leader Cllr Rob Jones and the Council’s Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Culture, Cllr Peter Rees, were invited to the site at Afan Valley Road to see the work for themselves.
Cllr Jones and Cllr Rees, joined by Neath Port Talbot Council Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Sustainable Development, Cllr Annette Wingrave, along with representatives of the school and building contractors Morgan Sindall, also signed a steel beam which forms part of the school’s new structure.
A total of 900 Cefn Saeson Comprehensive pupils will benefit from state-of-the-art classrooms comprising creative workspaces, art facilities and modern teaching facilities.
Work on the two-storey 9,011 square metre building began last year. The construction project is taking place alongside the existing school, which will be demolished upon completion.
Recent work at the site has involved a major landscaping and earthworks operation, the casting of concrete foundations and the erection of the school’s giant steel frame. The frame will continue to be erected over the next couple of months, followed closely by the roofing and structural framing system.
The new school will have vehicle and cycle parking (including safe drop-off and pick-up areas), enhanced sports facilities which can also be used by the community, external lighting, security CCTV and landscaping.
Cllr Peter Rees, said:
“As a council we pledged to provide each and every child in the county borough with the opportunity to access education in schools which are fit for the 21st century. Our programme has been very ambitious but we are determined to provide our young people with every chance we can to enable them to fulfil their true potential in life.”
The Cefn Saeson Comprehensive School replacement project is part of the Council’s ongoing Strategic School Improvement Programme (SSIP) and is among the latest phase (Band B) of the authority’s multi-million pound 21st Century Schools building programme, carried out in collaboration with the Welsh Government.
Since Neath Port Talbot Council pledged to modernise educational provision across its schools a decade ago, more than £123m has been ploughed into modernising the Council’s educational estate – a massive investment in the county borough’s next generations and the biggest of any Ccouncil in Wales outside of Cardiff.
The first phase of the Council’s SSIP programme has seen the following schools completed: Awel Y Mor, a £7.9m primary school in Sandfields; Ysgol Bae Baglan, the award winning £40m all-through facility on Baglan Moors; Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera, a £16m Welsh medium school in the Swansea Valley where a new £3.5m teaching block for primary aged pupils has also opened; Ysgol Cwm Brombil, the £30m all-through school in Margam with 78 miles of data cabling; the £19.3m Ysgol Gymraeg Bro Dur, a Welsh medium school for 11 to 16- year-olds in Sandfields; and the £7m Ysgol Carreg Hir in Briton Ferry, a primary school.
Earlier this month Neath Port Talbot Council’s Planning Committee granted conditional planning approval for an £8.5m new 520-pupil primary school to serve the community of Neath Abbey.
