OPENING dates for two Newport schools are likely to be pushed back by another year after fresh delays to building work.

The setback means fewer pupils will be admitted to the city's new Welsh-medium primary school next year.

Pillgwenlly Primary School is set to move to a new location on part of the former Whiteheads steelworks site, off Mendalgief Road, where there are also plans to build 528 homes.

Then, Welsh-medium primary school, Ysgol Gymraeg Nant Gwenlli, will move into the old Pillgwenlly Primary buildings.

But the project has already been delayed once, due to "uncertainty" over a land transfer, and pupils in Ysgol Gymraeg Nant Gwenlli are currently being taught at a temporary site in Caerleon.

This week, Newport City Council is expected to confirm a fresh setback to the project, again over "delays in the transfer of the land" from the Welsh Government to the developer at Whiteheads and to the council.

"A revised schedule of works suggests a delay of one calendar year in relation to the school build project," a council report reads.

Those delays mean pupils now won't move into the new Pillgwenlly Primary School site until January 2024 - the previous estimated opening date was the start of the spring term in 2023.

And pupils at Ysgol Gymraeg Nant Gwenlli won't be able to move from their temporary site to their new classrooms until September 2024 - the previous plan was for this to happen, in September 2023.

South Wales Argus: Top, the former Whiteheads steelworks site, where Pillgwenlly Primary School will relocate in a new building and, below, the existing Pill primary, where the new Welsh medium primary school will eventually end upTop, the former Whiteheads steelworks site, where Pillgwenlly Primary School will relocate in a new building and, below, the existing Pill primary, where the new Welsh medium primary school will eventually end up

It was always planned that Ysgol Gymraeg Nant Gwenlli would spend some time based in Caerleon, but the new proposed dates for the school move means pupils and staff will spend three full years there, rather than the original plan for two years.

As a result, the number of new pupils who can attend the new Welsh-medium school will remain slashed by half this September.

While there is "sufficient capacity at the temporary location to accommodate Ysgol Gymraeg Nant Gwenlli for an additional academic year", the council notes "the reduced published admission number of 30 will need to be maintained until the school moves to its permanent location, at which point it will increase to 60".

"Unforeseen delays in the land transfer from Welsh Government to the developer and subsequently the ouncil mean that the work has not been progressed within the timescales originally anticipated," a council report reads. "The council has now been advised that land transfer will take place in the spring of 2022.

"As a result, build works in relation to the new school have not yet commenced and therefore the original occupation date of January 2023 will not be realised."

Newport City Council will this week ask its chief education officer to confirm the new opening dates for both schools' permanent sites.