NEWPORT council's planning committee may have got cold - or should that be wet? - feet about multi-million pound plans to revitalise the Duffryn High School site, tonight it was education chiefs who were feeling the chill.

In the aftermath of the committee's flood risk-fuelled decision to throw out the council's own plan to develop a Welsh medium secondary school and redevelop the existing high school, the atmosphere in which the luckless officers charged with placating parents, teachers and pupils had to operate was bound to be frosty.

The audience of parents, teachers and pupils came to demand answers, and the collective passion and eloquence displayed by those who asked questions or made statements was compelling.

Many of those questions would have been better answered however by planning experts, who were absent.  Speakers included pupils from Year 9 to the sixth form, eager to tell council education boss James Harris and his team of their pride in their school despite the shortcomings of its buildings, and of how they feel let down at having their hopes of learning in a 21st Century environment dashed.

Teachers described their battles to teach, and their pupils' efforts to learn, in surroundings desperately in need of a radical revamp.

And parents - of past, current and future Duffryn High School pupils - spoke of their frustration and their anger at yet another promised upgrade falling by the wayside.

With an admitted lack of a Plan B, Mr Harris could only try, with little success, to reassure the audience that work has already begun on seeking a new way forward.  This school hall resounds regularly throughout the year with the applause of parents and teachers for the achievements of their children, their pupils, at prizegiving evenings and special assemblies. The pride they all have in the school was evident throughout tonight's two-hour meeting.