A NEW £10m Meirionnydd super school will not have any religious status after the county council’s Cabinet threw out previous proposals.

A fresh consultation will now be held in September on the future governance of the under-construction 3-19 learning campus development in Bala, which is scheduled to open in September 2018, with a pre-­consultation to be held with the Church in Wales in the meantime.

Following a 1,000-signature petition in January, which called on Gwynedd Council to “end its partnership with the Church in Wales and to relaunch the project as a ‘community’ project”, the Diocese of St Asaph agreed not to stand in the way and potentially put the investment at risk, half of which is from the Welsh Government.

The Cabinet decision comes after a long-running dispute between Gwynedd Council, local schools and the Church in Wales about whether the school should have ‘voluntary controlled’ status – where the church is represented on the board of governors – or ‘community status’, where there is no religious representation.

The 3-19 learning campus is intended to replace several current schools in the area, including the Church in Wales school Ysgol Beuno Sant.

Following consultation with school governing bodies in Y Berwyn catchment area, a report to Cabinet before Tuesday afternoon’s meeting recommended that the proposal to establish a voluntary controlled governance structure be abandoned.

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