THE "breath-taking potential” of the Sir Thomas Picton site as the location for a new 11-19 school in Haverfordwest cannot be ignored, Pembrokeshire County Council’s cabinet decided on Monday.

Cabinet had received a report recommending the adoption of the Tasker Milward site as the preferred option for the construction of a new English Medium School.

However Cllr David Lloyd, cabinet member for education and lifelong learning, said that, especially in light of the sports facilities at STP, which were comparable with the best in Wales, the situation needed revisiting.

“If we weren’t to look hard at the possibility of delivering at Sir Thomas Picton it would be nothing short of vandalism to get rid of these facilities. But the report says there are very very real difficulties and time is not on our side.”

Despite this Cllr Lloyd asked that the council looked to “narrow the risks involved in going forward with the Sir Thomas Picton site” during the next six months.

These include the fact that some of the land needed to create a link road was a site of special scientific interest, the cost and time implications of creating the link road and the cost and deliverability of decanting students from the STP site to the Taskers site during the construction of the new school, if the STP site was adopted.

“The proviso for such work to be undertaken, however, must be that it should not imperil the creation of a new school given the timeframes of Band B 21st Century Schools’ funding,” Cllr Lloyd added.

Cllr Lloyd was supported by many of his cabinet colleagues;

“In my view the case for the Tasker Milward site has not yet been made. We need to ensure that the right site is chosen through this process,” said Cllr Paul Miller.

“While I accept the arguments about costs are valid I don’t think an additional £2m for a new access road, within the context of a £50m new school which will serve the town of Haverfordwest for the next 50 years or more, is a particularly material consideration.”

Cllr Tessa Hodgson added: “My own view has always been that this [STP] should be the preferred site of the secondary school for Haverfordwest.”

She added that back in 2015 councillors were told that the Taskers site was too small for the new school.

“We’ve got a chance here to leave a legacy for Haverfordwest,” she said. “And I don’t want that legacy to be of a cramped overcrowded site with poor sports and recreational facilities.”

Council leader, David Simpson concluded: “The intention of cabinet is that the new school hopefully will be sited at the Sir Thomas Picton site and we will work towards that outcome, that the new school will be on the STP site.”