£2 million boost from Ebbw Vale campus build

The £27.5 million Learning Zone at The Works in Ebbw Vale will cater for 1,400 full time pupils from September next year.

Contractors Leadbitter say work on the four storey, 13,300 square metre campus building is now half way through, and revealed for the first time that it will be ready to hand over to the council and Coleg Gwent in May 2012.

But the firm has also revealed the huge benefits the project has had for employment and the local economy.

A progress report shows that over the last 12 months, 350 people have been involved in building The Learning Zone, with 39 per cent of workers living within 20 miles of the site at the former steelworks.

30 of these were previously unemployed, and seven people are currently on bricklaying apprenticeships at the site.

Local companies have also benefited.

Out of £15 million of work contracts that have been let to date, £13 million have gone directly to companies in Wales, and £2 million worth of contracts have gone to local firms.

This includes Ebbw Vale and Tredegar companies, which supplied 7,000 cubic meters of concrete, worth more than £500,000, for piling, ground works and the Leaning Zone’s frame.

The frame now been completed, and work is beginning on the wall cladding and 7,400 square metres of brick work.

The Learning Zone will open to students in September 2012, providing all of the county borough's post-16 education in conjunction with Coleg Gwent.

Sixth forms at Brynmawr Foundation School, Ebbw Vale Comprehensive and Tredegar Comprehensive will all close, with pupils transferring to the new site.

Leader of Blaenau Gwent council Des Hillman said the benefits to the local economy were a "tremendous boost" for the county borough.

Cllr Hillman added: "The state-of-the-art facilities these firms are helping to build will be wonderful for the pupils in September 2012, and all the others that come along behind them."