Go ahead for mixed-use school conversion

Planning permission has been granted for the redevelopment of Glan Afan Comprehensive School in Port Talbot to provide housing and commercial space.At a meeting of the planning committee on 10 January 2017, Neath Port Talbot Council approved an application for the school, which counts actor Michael Sheen among its former pupils, submitted by Coastal Housing Group.The developer has proposed the conversion of the main structure to accommodate a commercial unit with a ground floor extension and twelve residential apartments, while maintaining the red brick façade of the Victorian building.Other buildings to rear of the school site will be demolished to make way for new apartments, detached and semi-detached houses and a further commercial unit, alongside associated access, car parking and landscaping works.The redevelopment of Glan Afan School is one of a number of projects for Port Talbot’s three-year housing-led regeneration programme. More than £35m will be invested in and around the town centre, part funded by the Welsh Government’s Vibrant and Viable Places (VVP) programme.Glan Afan Comprehensive closed in July 2016 with pupils transferring to the new Ysgol Bae Baglan for the new academic year in September.