AMBITIOUS plans, amounting to almost £150m of further investment in school buildings across Swansea over the coming years, have been drawn-up.

Mike Hedges AM welcomes news that Millions set to be invested in new facilities for city Eastside schools – on top of millions already invested.

AMBITIOUS plans, amounting to almost £150m of further investment in school buildings across Swansea over the coming years, have been drawn-up.

Mike Hedges said …. This is wonderful news for the city and in particular for my Constituents in Swansea East. In recent years we have seen £21 million spent in Morriston Comprehensive, £8 million on the new Burlais Primary School, £9.8 million on the new school in Lon Las and additional funding for the scheme in Pentrahafod Comprehensive. This represents one of the biggest transformative programs for schools in my constituency ever.

In addition to new buildings, the new and rebuilt schools will offer children the chance to study new courses in state of the art facilities, equipped with the most up to date equipment.

There will also be community spin off’s such as the new 3G facilities which will shortly be installed in newly rebuilt Cefn Hengoed, bringing a desperately needed artificial pitch to the Eastside of the city.

Residents in the Hafod area will also enjoy new facilities in the local community centre, funded by a community benefit scheme.

The money will be used to transform the provision for some of Swansea's most vulnerable young people, expand the number of places for pupils being taught through the medium of Welsh to meet growing demand and to further reduce a backlog in school structural maintenance and repairs.

This will build on the considerable impact to date of the Band A programme which by March 2019 will have invested £51.3m in school facilities in addition to the Council's annual structural maintenance programme and earlier funding accessed from the WG - a total itself approaching £100m.

The next phase of the programme covers the period from 2019 to 2024.

A new multi-million pound centre at the council's Cockett House site in Cockett to replace the existing and outdated pupil referral units at Manselton, Penlan and Cockett has already been approved as part of the plans.

The cost of the centre will be shared with the Welsh Government and it will help more pupils who, at the moment, are educated other than at school (EOTAS) to remain or return as quickly as possible to mainstream education.

As part of the delivery of the Council's Welsh Education Strategic Plan, there are plans to further enhance accommodation and facilities at the existing secondary schools as well as for new schools for YGG Tan-y-lan and YGG Tirdeunaw pupils.

Mike  Hedges said ‘The exciting plans for YCG Tan Y Lan which were submitted in December show that there is a real commitment to develop new and modern facilities which will benefit children and the wider community. We know that the demand for Welsh Education is increasing and this will enable the school community to meet that demand with state of the art facilities’

Access to funding for appropriate feasibility, design and other site preparatory works and investigations could also support future investment to enhance educational provision in the Penderry area, reflecting the scale of potential new housing developments.

Capital investment will be similarly sought to further address condition and suitability needs across English-medium primary schools, again prioritised to reflect the scale of funding available.