Newport City Council’s leader says the local authority is “fully committed” to redeveloping old buildings at Caerleon Comprehensive School, after works were put on hold.

Plans to replace dated facilities at the school were held up so the council could prioritise “emergency” works at St Andrew’s Primary, where “significant structural issues” posed a safety risk to pupils and staff.

A council report shows “slower than anticipated progress” for Caerleon Comprehensive, where any renovations are also made trickier to plan because of the area’s rich Roman archaeological importance.

The project is in the “early design” stage and will now be rolled over into the next phase of the council’s multi-million pound school improvement programme, which is also part-funded by the Welsh Government.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting, on Wednesday October 16, council leader Dimitri Batrouni said the local authority is “fully committed to Caerleon”.

“They need a brand new school”, he said, adding that he had visited the site and seen “the issues they face”.

He pointed to recently completed work at Bassaleg School as a benchmark for what the council wanted to achieve.

There, a new teaching block replaced old “poor quality” temporary classrooms and welcomed its first pupils at the start of the current school term.

The new facility at Bassaleg is one “every child in this city should have”, Cllr Batrouni said.

The council has acknowledged “challenges” at the Caerleon site, however, due to the the area’s Roman past – and there is a risk this could add more time to the renovation project for the school.

“The location of the school means that Cadw approval will be required before any works commence,” the council said in its report. “This process will require an appropriate amount of time to be invested to ensure approvals are obtained.”

At St Andrew’s Primary, meanwhile, work to complete the new junior block should be completed by the end of the year.

Junior pupils, who are currently being taught at Newport Live’s Connect Centre, will move into their new classrooms at St Andrew’s in January.