POWYS County Council’s crunch meeting over the future of four secondary schools is to be broadcast on the council’s website.

The independent run council’s cabinet will be asked to start procedures to close Brecon, Llandrindod, Builth Wells and Gwernyfed high schools when it meets at County Hall, Llandrindod Wells on Tuesday, February 23.

Access to the meeting will be by ticket only on a first come, first served basis on the day.

Leader, Councillor Barry Thomas said: "The future of our secondary schools is vitally important and a subject of huge public interest so we have decided that the full meeting and debate will be webcast live for all to see.

"Parents, pupils and all those interested can following the decision making as it takes place or watch it at a later date through our archive service."

The cabinet will be considering recommendations from the council’s schools organisation review panel for secondary provision in mid and south Powys.

The panel has recommended closing Brecon and Gwernyfed High, in Three Cocks, and replacing them with an 11 to 16 English medium school at Brecon.

The school would operate from two sites until a new building is ready on the current site of Brecon High School.

Post 16 provision would be provided by a further education college.

The council has plans for a £50m school and adjacent college at the site of Brecon High.

It has also been recommended to establish a new 11 to 18 school to replace Llandrindod and Builth Wells high schools.

It would also operate from the two existing school sites until a new school building can be provided in Builth. It would provide Welsh medium education for south and mid Powys, including the Brecon area.

The cabinet will consider the proposals in two phases, with the plans for Builth and Llandrindod considered at 10.30am and Brecon and Gwernyfed at 2pm.

Cllr Thomas said: "We also anticipate that a number of people will want to attend County Hall and are doing all that we can to accommodate as many as possible but space is limited and numbers will be restricted.

"To help with that process we will hold the meeting in two sections one starting at 10.30 and dealing with recommendations for Builth Wells and Llandrindod Wells and the second starting at 2.00pm dealing with recommendations for Gwernyfed and Brecon.

"Access to both meetings will be by ticket only, with limited public seats available in the council chamber. Tickets will be issued on the day of the meeting on a first come first serve basis they will not be allocated in advance. Tickets will be issued separately for both sessions, the afternoon tickets will not be available until after lunch."

Visitors are also advised that there will be no public parking available on the day and that they should use the town’s pay and display car parks, although there will be disabled parking spaces available for visitors with a blue badge.

The webcast can be viewed from 10.30am on Tuesday, February 23 by going to the council’s webcast portal at www.powys.public-i.tv on an internet device with Flash or Silverlight software installed.

The webcast will also be made available in the webcast archive from February 24 onwards, for a period of six months.

Twitter users can use the hashtag #PowysWebcast to discuss the issues while the meeting is taking place.