THE VALE council is set to go back to the drawing board in creating a new plan for the future of secondary schooling in Barry.

At a cabinet meeting of the Vale council this week (Monday, October 5), councillor Chris Elmore confirmed that the council have listened to the opinions of parents, teachers and pupils and will not be going ahead with the plans for a mixed sex super school in the town.

The plans, announced in February and the subject of a massive consultation, proposed the building of a new co-ed secondary school on the current site of Barry Comprehensive and Ysgol Bro Morgannwg with pupils from Ysgol Bro Morgannwg secondary and the newly opened Ysgol Nant Talwg primary school moving to the current Bryn Hafren school site.

The consultation showed opposition to the plans, which will now be reconsidered at a future date.

Cabinet member for children's services and schools cllr Elmore said: "We always said that if there was no support for the consultation we would not progress which is what we're doing.

"There will be no rushing, and we will consult again."

Figures show that the Vale council received 604 individual responses on official response forms by the closing date as well as 753 individual responses through the young people's response form. A petition signed by 60 pupils attending Bryn Hafren Comprehensive School was also received.

Of the responses to the question "Do you support the proposal to create a new mixed comprehensive community school through the amalgamation of Barry and Bryn Hafren comprehensive schools from September 2017?" 72 per cent were opposed with 28 per cent in favour.

Of the 696 young people's individual responses to the proposal to create a new mixed sex community comprehensive school 422 (60 per cent) were opposed

Of the 186 young people's individual responses to the proposal to relocate Ysgol Gyfun Bro Morgannwg and Ysgol Gymraeg Nant Talwg to the current site of Bryn Hafren Comprehensive School, 110 (59 per cent) were opposed, 46 (27 per cent) were in favour and 30 (16 per cent) did not know.

A report put before the council's Cabinet showed that for those in favor of the proposal the key themes were the need for mixed sex secondary education in Barry, mixed sex education supporting the social development of young people, and the need for expansion at Ysgol Gyfun Bro Morgannwg.