THE head teacher of a Pontypool comprehensive has apologised to parents if their children feel his school is an "unwelcome and dangerous building site".

Yesterday, the Argus revealed how pupils at West Mon Comprehen-sive School, on Blaendare Road, faced disruption on their first day of term as the building was covered in scaffolding.

Last week engineers found weaknesses in the building's entrance caused by plants growing along the roof.

Repair work could take twelve weeks.

Large sections of the school grounds were cordoned off and headteacher Peter Phillips told the Argus he would put pupils on a four-day week, or only open for half days, if he felt the site was unsafe.

In a letter to parents he says: "I regret that upon your child's arrival this morning he or she may have felt West Mon had become a dangerous and unwelcome building site."

Following checks on the building yesterday, Mr Phillips decided to keep the school fully open for the time being.

He said: "At the moment no work has started so I am satisfied the pupils are safe. I intend to review this decision on a daily basis."

Mr Phillips blamed a lack of funding over a number of years for the poor condition of the school.

Parents were also left asking why the repairs hadn't been carried out before.

Deborah Tippins, 42, of Griffithstown, said: "They do seem to have left all this to the last minute. Let's just hope that no one has an accident."

Lucy Dunlop, 36, of Abersychan, said: "Parents should have been made aware of this and we should have had a letter of confirmation that pupils' safety was not compromised before school started."

But David Powell, Tor-faen's assistant director for education, said the extent of the problem was not known until last week's maintenance work.

He said: "We acted immediately and made the area safe by cordoning off the main entrance, and worked with the school to minimise disruption.

"There is going to be some inconvenience as pupils and staff will now have to enter the school by an alternative entrance.

"Lessons will carry on as normal as the work does not affect any of the classrooms, so pupils and staff can come to the school as normal."