A NEW, £7m primary school in Abergavenny is too modern in design, too big and will not have enough parking, a local councillor said.

Councillor Chris Woodhouse said he was concerned about the design for the new 420-place primary school for the former Llwynu Infants School site as it is much bigger than originally planned and takes up 80% of the site.

He told fellow members of the county planning committee: "This is too big a school on too small a plot. The modern design has major maintenance costs and does not sit nicely with an area which has houses with slate and tiled roofs.

"Why can't we have a traditional brick or stone building with a slate roof? There are also flaws with the design, such as narrow corridors."

He also dubbed the building "more Milton Keynes than Monmouthshire".

Councillor Woodhouse said he was also worried about the amount of parking space allowed.

He said: "The car parking of 46 spaces is laughable. We are talking about hundreds of cars at Harold Road Junior School and they have only 300 pupils."

He said the traffic could reach saturation point with the new school in such close proximity to St David's School, which will eventually house Ysgol Gymraeg Y Fenni Welsh-medium primary school and King Henry VIII Comprehensive School.

Other reservations were expressed in a letter from Abergavenny parent Laurie Jones, who claimed the development would be a departure from the council's Local Plan and should have been advertised as such.

But George Ashworth, head of planning, said he had checked with the council's solicitor, who said this covered housing and employment but not community facilities, which can go outside the town boundaries.

But he asked the planning committee not to make a final decision on the scheme until the council had consulted with Llantilio Pertholey community council.

Although the site is within the Abergavenny town council boundary, the plans include use of the land across the road which falls within the Llantilio Pertholey council area.

Mr Ashworth said the school will be all single storey, apart from the community facilities, which include a badminton court and will be two-storey.

He said as well as parking space there was provision for dropping-off bays for parents bringing their children to school by car.