POWYS council’s cabinet has agreed to start the process that could close secondary schools at Brecon, Builth Wells, Gwernyfed and Llandrindod Wells.

The cabinet unanimously approved plans to close Brecon High School and Gwernyfed High School from August 2017 and Llandrindod and Builth from the same date.

The council’s cabinet member for schools, Councillor Arwel Jones said urgent action is required to address falling pupil numbers which is leading to a drop in school funding and making it harder for schools to offer a range of subjects across the curriculum.

The cabinet heard from local councillors and the leaders of its opposition groups - who all criticised the plans - before holding separate discussions and votes on Builth and Llandrindod and Brecon with Gwernyfed.

What happens next?

Powys Council has agreed to consult on the closure of all four schools. It must now hold formal consultations for teachers, pupils, parents and the communities to have their say.

The council will collect all the information submitted to it and bring another report back to the council which will recommend whether or not to go ahead and issue formal closure notices.

When will the schools close and open?

The schools would formally close in August 2017, in effect the schools would close when the summer term finishes that July. The two new schools would open that September - but will operate from the existing sites until new buildings have been built.

What will the school’s provide?

The new school in Brecon, replacing Brecon and Gwernyfed, will be an 11 to 16 school, offering only English medium provision. Post 16 courses would be provided by the NPTC college.

A new school, most likely in Builth, to replace Builth and Llandrindod would be for 11 to 18 years olds and would provide Welsh language provision for most of south Powys.

When will the new buildings be ready?

The new building in Brecon could be built by 2019 or 2020 - but the council had first planned for a replacement for Brecon High School to be operational by 2015.

There is no time frame for the replacement for Builth, Llandrindod and the cabinet was told no site has been identified yet as the council must carry out further work on costing a new site in Builth Wells.

For a full report of the cabinet meeting see this week’s Brecon & Radnor Express - on sale from Wednesday, February 24.