MORE studies into possible sites for Torfaen's proposed superschool are being commissioned - amid growing confusion over the future of the whole project.

The council's cabinet committee yesterday decided to spend up to £200,000 to look again at the Riverside, British and Talywain sites.

The plan is to build a £21 million school to replace Trevethin and Abersychan comprehensives.

Until recently, the council was expected to agree to site the school at Riverside, Pontnewynydd, resulting in the removal of the Ty Nant Ddu day centre.

But the situation changed after the public consultation meetings found public opinion strongly divided over the plan.

At the cabinet meeting Torfaen's director of education, Mike de Val, summarised the findings of the public consultation exercise, saying there was strong support in principle for a new school.

But he admitted support for building on the Riverside site was not as strong as expected, and there was a lot of opposition to the demolition of Ty Nant Ddu. Crucially, he said, applications for compulsory purchase orders on non-council owned land at Riverside would be likely to fail at present because of uncertainty over the project.

The cabinet agreed to engage consultants to investigate possible sites for the superschool.

Councillor Bob Wellington, acting council leader, said afterwards: "We have listened to people's concerns.

"Members recognise that this is a very difficult issue, change always is, and consider it appropriate to delay decisions for a couple of months to make sure that the best course of action is chosen."

The future of Trevethin school also remains unclear. An item on the agenda for yesterday's meeting recommended the council start planning to close the school, as it is in a poor condition. But Labour councillors met on Monday night and that item was dropped from yesterday's cabinet meeting without explanation.

The agenda report by Mr de Val stated: "The situation of Trevethin school needs to be resolved as a matter of urgency as it will not remain viable beyond September 2005 without significant revenue subsidy."