A CWMBRAN nursery will close next year while a Pontypool school faces closure as part of the council's 21st century schools programme.
Torfaen council announced yesterday that the Welsh Government had approved proposals to close Two Locks Nursery.
This followed a cabinet meeting this week where councillors also voted to open a consultation on the proposed closure of Pontnewynydd School.
Welsh ministers have previously approved the closure of Kemys Fawr Infants School, Pontypool, while Torfaen council has also proposed the closure of Pontymoile Primary.
The closure of Two Locks nursery forms the first step of a £257million 21st Century Schools programme which aims to tackle surplus places and deliver a mixture of new, extended and refurbished schools across Torfaen.
The nursery will close from September 2014, with nursery provision transferring to Nant Celyn Primary.
The council said it had received written confirmation of the Welsh Government decision accepting the reasons for closure and responding to objections.
Kemys Fawr Primary will also close from September 2014.
Following the decision this week to proceed with a consultation on the closure of Pontnewynydd School, a report is timetabled to come back before the cabinet on November 26.
If cabinet then decide to proceed with closure, a statutory notice will be published and a new round of consultation will begin.
At the meeting, the cabinet were informed that Pontnewynydd Primary School is now more than 100 years old and has been identified in an independent survey commissioned by the Welsh Government as a category C/D condition school, with A being good.
In addition, approximately £746,000 is needed in terms of backlog maintenance.
The proposal sets out that children will be accommodated at Penygarn School.
At the meeting, Cllr Brian Mawby, cabinet member in charge of education, said that savings made from school closure is the only means council can prudentially borrow.
Council leader, cllr Bob Wellington, said: “"Closing the school is the hardest decision in the world. If it was in my ward I would be the same (opposing it). But we have to take a world view."
So far, the 21st Century Schools programme has resulted in the closure/amalgamation of 25 schools with a net reduction of 15 schools overall.
Full details of the Welsh Government’s response to the closing of Two Locks nursery are available at http://wales.gov.uk/
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