A NEW school is a step closer to being built on a former waste tip in Newport. Councillors in the city voted yesterday in favour of a replacement for the run-down Durham Road Schools in the city being built on the former landfill site at the Glebelands. As the Argus reported yesterday, the plans now need to go before the council's planning committee for final approval.

Members voted after hearing the results of a human health risk assessment carried out on the site by independent consultants URS.

Councillors who sit on the planning committee left the meeting to enable them to make an objective decision at a later date - the plans have outline permission, but they will have the opportunity to add conditions for the necessary amount of remedial work to be carried out.

The specialist advisor at URS, Jason Clay, said although the land was currently contaminated it could be made safe by "putting a cap over the top of it". Asked by Councillor Lloyd Delahaye whether he would be content to send his own children to such a school, Mr Clay said "yes".

He added: "I would not be able to stand before you today and sleep tonight if I did not wholeheartedly believe the conclusions of the report."

But not everyone was so certain - a group which has campaigned against plans to build on the site for 12 years said it was angry about yesterday's decision. John Martin, a member of the Glebelands Action Group, said his fears for the children who would attend the school had not been allayed by the report. "This is just window-dressing," he said. "I don't think they can make it safe." Councillor Matthew Evans asked whether or not, in light of the news that there are hot spots of contamination on the site, the council would be informing people who use the Glebelands. Council leader Sir Harry Jones replied that they would be writing to all allotment holders about the risk that currently exists, without being "alarmist", as the land had been used for many years without anyone coming to harm.

But he said the capping of the site would make it safer than it is now. "This is right for the community and right for the children," he said.

Councillor John Jenkins added that the report had led him to believe they would be doing a service to the children of Durham Road Schools by "taking them out of a Victorian school which is inadequate for their use and restricting their ability".

A total of 26 councillors voted in favour of proceeding with the scheme, with two abstentions.

*PICTURED: Chairman of the Glebelands Action Group John Martin (right) and Brian Donovan.