PLANS for the new £20 million sixth form college in the middle of Cwmbran town centre have been revealed.

Coleg Gwent will be responsible for the 1,000-place school, which will replace sixth forms at Cwmbran High, St Albans RC High and Croesyceiliog School.

The proposed four-storey building will include two atriums, performance and social spaces, classrooms with moveable walls and a safe open roof garden.

Students, staff and visitors would be able to make use of 118 parking spaces, 71 of which are planned in a carpark underneath the school.

The outline planning application also seeks to build a hotel, offices and a retail outlet on the former Meritor brake factory site.

A new access road will be built from St Davids Road, with a new bus drop-off area also proposed adjacent to the site.

Pedestrians would be able to access the development from the neighbouring Morrisons store.

Torfaen council’s planning committee approved the St Davids Road alterations on April 17 but expressed concerns around traffic entering the site from the nearby roundabout

But Councillor Janet Jones said last month: “If we do not agree to accept the proposals in front of us it could have a detrimental effect on future plans for that site, which could include the sixth form college which we are desperate for.”

A supporting document for the application reads: “The proposed access will have minimal impact on the surrounding road network due to the left in left out junction which is the preferred option and will not result in any queuing on St David’s Road.”

The site is expected to open in September 2020 as part of the first phase of the Welsh Government’s 21stCentury Schools programme in Torfaen county borough.

Building work will be headed up by Interserve, which has been responsible for the Caldicot and Monmouth new-build schools in Monmouthshire.

The application is expected to go before the committee in the coming months.