DAMAGE to a primary school building in Newport has cost the city council an extra £125,000 since inspectors first uncovered safety problems there.

Millbrook Primary School, in Bettws, closed in the summer of 2022 following an inspection of the main building, during which structural problems were discovered.

Pupils and staff have spent the past year in temporary classrooms at an adult training centre in Brynglas, and that arrangement is set to continue when the next academic year begins in September.

Figures published under a Freedom of Information Act request show the city council has so far spent more than £25,000 on repairs at Millbrook Primary.

An extra £100,000 has been spent to date on running costs for classes at the temporary site in Brynglas.

Millbrook Primary’s pupils and staff went from welcoming Queen Camilla - then the Duchess of Cornwall - in July 2022 to having their school closed down just weeks later, after “potential issues” were discovered by building inspectors.

The move to temporary classrooms at an adult training centre in Brynglas was meant to be “temporary” but earlier this summer the headteacher confirmed to parents their children would be taught there for another academic year.

The move to the training centre has proved controversial among some parents who complained previously about transport arrangements and the facilities provided there.

In a letter sent to several Newport councillors in July and seen by the Argus, parents said: "The future is meant to look bright, yet our children are being left behind and no person in power seems to care."

"We are now coming to the end of the school year and our children still have no breakfast club, no school sports teams, no after school clubs, unsuitable classroom space, unsuitable outdoor play area and no school," the parents said in their letter.

"Parents are taking their children out of Millbrook and moving them to alternative schools, even schools further away because they do not feel that their children are getting the education they deserve due to the poor, limited and inadequate environment they are being taught in," their letter read.

At the time a spokesperson for Newport City Council said: "Our priority has always been to ensure the children could continue to receive their education and fortunately they are able to use the Brynglas Training Centre."

They added: "We acknowledge the concerns of parents and carers, but it is vitally important that a long-term, sustainable and viable solution is found for the school. They are kept informed when any updates are available."

Reports of vandalism are a persistent problem at the vacant Millbrook Primary site and Newport City Council has now urged Bettws residents living nearby to share its warnings about the dangers of entering the site illegally.

Trespassers’ actions had resulted in the empty school being “considered dangerous”, the council said earlier this month.