ABOUT 100 children have left Cwmcarn High since the school temporarily moved to Ebbw Vale, and the school has lost funding for these pupils, it was revealed at this week’s council meeting.

Risca councillor David Rees asked about the situation at Wednesday’s full Caerphilly council meeting, where officers confirmed that funding for those pupils will now go to their new schools.

Corporate director of education Sandra Aspinall also said Cwmcarn’s future could be resolved soon, saying a management report on the asbestos problem was “imminent”.

Campaigners chanted “save our school” to councillors arriving for Wednesday’s budget, with organiser Kelly East saying many had ignored their requests for help beforehand.

She said: ‘Most won’t get involved. We have knocked their doors and some have even hidden, so we decided to go to the meeting and badger them.

“There has been a feeling they have wanted to close it since I was there in 1989, either to build a new Welsh-medium school on the site or now under its 21st Century Schools Programme.”

Caerphilly council plans to close three schools in the borough in the next two years, to tackle surplus places that are predicted to rise to 4,000 by 2022.

However, serious discussions on which schools will close have not yet begun. And with those remaining of Cwmcarn’s 900 pupils not able to continue attending their temporary home in Ebbw Vale past this July, their situation needs to be resolved first.

Campaigners stayed at the budget meeting for around an hour, before waiting outside, asking councillors to sign their petition as they left.

A spokesman for the Save Cwmcarn group said that around 20 members signed the petition, while chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan stopped to chat to protesters, although he told them he was unable to add his name because of his position.