CONTROVERSIAL plans to build a school on a former waste site at Newport could be halted.

The Children's Commissioner for Wales is believed to have objected to building a replacement for the overcrowded Durham Road Schools on the Glebelands playing-fields (pictured).

It is expected that the commissioner, Peter Clarke, will make a formal announcement this week after a meeting today with Assembly officials.

The Argus understands, however, that Newport council has already been informed of Mr Clarke's intervention.

His objections to the principle of building schools on former waste sites would be communicated to the National Assembly, which could stop two privately funded Welsh schemes - at Newport and Conwy.

Mr Clarke said in August that he was "left with a degree of unease", having seen a new scientific study which found a link between landfill sites - some of which contain poisonous wastes - and birth defects.

But an Assembly spokesman said this meeting would simply be "a technical briefing with officials from the Assembly and the Environment Agency to chat through the issues and bring the commissioner up to date".

The spokesman added that it was thought the issue of building schools on former landfill sites would be discussed, but no decisions would be made.

But Newport council's leader, Sir Harry Jones, said he had heard rumours that Mr Clarke would be making "some sort of announcement " regarding the school.

"He had information which, as far as we are aware, we don't have," he said. "As a council we will take cognisance of that information and take into account whether this is anything which would lead us to take a different perspective. Until we have got that information, there is nothing we can say."

Sir Harry said earlier this month that the school would go ahead unless the National Assembly provided evidence as to why it should not.

He said he had written to Edwina Hart, the Assembly Minister for local government, finance and the communities, asking for confirmation of any information which might put a new perspective on the project.

But Sir Harry said at the weekend that they still had not received an answer. A spokeswoman for the council said they could not comment as they had not received anything official from the commissioner.

John Martin, chairman of Glebelands Action Group, said: "My source said Newport council have been told a school must not be built within a mile of that site."