A BORDER secondary school which was previously threatened with closure is set to benefit from a £7.2 million refurbishment including a new sports hall.

Pupils at Gwernyfed High School, in Three Cocks, are now set to benefit from refurbished and newly built classrooms to meet 21st century schools standards. The work will also see a new sports hall built along with improvements to car parking and access at the premises.

Powys County Council approved refurbishment at its cabinet meeting on Tuesday, after making a u-turn on their future plans for the school.

Councillors agreed to provide an additional £500,000 for the work taking the overall for the project cost to £7.2m.

Cabinet Member for Education, councillor Myfanwy Alexander said: “This is a major investment to provide learners at Gwernyfed with the learning environment they deserve to support high-quality teaching and learning.”

In 2016 the council were considering plans to close the school by 2020 with pupils transferred to a newly built Brecon school as part of its school reorganisation policy.

However, after widespread disgust about the plans and over 1,000 people turning up at the high school to voice their concerns during a consultation event the proposals were eventually scrapped.