DOZENS of children with autism in Newport are set to receive their education at a new specialist unit in the city from September next year.

Councillors have approved plans to convert the Gaer infants school, on the city's Melfort Road, into an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) unit.

Currently, Newport does not have a specialist school for ASD children and number of pupils are having to be educated in ASD units outside the area.

But the new unit is set to provide for up to 48 pupils across the schooling range, from the foundation stage to key stage five.

Gaer infants school merged with the neighbouring junior school last September to form Gaer primary school, which now caters for more than 400 pupils.

The infants school site has been earmarked as a potential base for an ASD unit for some time, and the approval of planning permission for the project yesterday will trigger preparations to make its buildings ready. It is planned to open the unit in September 2016.

In the meantime, a programme of building work and adaptations must be carried out to make sure the site is ready for its new role.

A number of small, single storey extensions will be needed, to provide hygiene rooms, toilets, a secure lobby, store rooms for each classroom, and a lift platform. Canopies are also proposed, to extend from classrooms to provide covered play areas.

A play area and a wildlife area are planned at the rear of the site, with existing play areas to the front being partially replaced by a new 47-space car park, to operate on a one-way loop system.

A new 2.4-metre wide footpath linking up with the existing footpath off Melfort Road and Gaer Road is also planned.

The granting of planning permission for the unit was delayed for four weeks due to concerns over the impact of aspects of the proposal on an existing tree on the site, but these have now been satisfactorily addressed.