LLANDUDNO’s special school Ysgol Y Gogarth is to receive a mini bus thanks to the result of a court case.

Steve Morgan, the founder and chairman of the housebuilding company, Redrow plc, was awarded damages in a legal action against the Daily Mail publisher, Associated Newspapers Ltd.

At Steve's request, a substantial payment has been made in full to charity in lieu of damages and part of the payment will be used for an adapted mini bus for Ysgol Y Gogarth. As a result his charity, the Steve Morgan Foundation, was able to make the donation to Ysgol Y Gogarth.

A spokesperson for the Foundation said: “We regularly donate vehicles to special needs schools and community transport organisations. Ysgol Y Gogarth is an outstanding special needs school and the bus will help with extra curricular activities which help improve the children’s independent living skills.

“We moved immediately once the court decision was announced.”

“North Wales had 51 grants from us last year mostly for specialist disability equipment. In this financial year, which ends in March, we have made donations totalling £8.6 million in the region we cover: North Wales, Merseyside, and parts of Cheshire and Shropshire.”

Ysgol Y Gogarth headteacher Mr Jonathan Morgan said: “We applied to the Steve Morgan Foundation a few months ago because our current fleet of mini buses is ageing and are becoming increasingly expensive to maintain. They are extremely important to us because they allow children to gain access to the local community along with college link courses and allow us to continue inclusive projects with partner mainstream schools.

“We also have a residential provision, so this allows children who are staying with us for short breaks to take part in weekend and evening activities both locally and further afield. We are benefitting from legal action and are clearly very grateful and are rally pleased with the speed of the response to our request and to hear from the Foundation so soon after the outcome of the case.

“The friends and Parents’ Association also contributed to the cost of the bus.”