Councillors will hold a site meeting in an attempt to resolve a row over a footpath threatening to delay the building of a new school in Welshpool.

A meeting of Welshpool Town Council’s planning committee last night agreed to defer the item for two weeks while they investigated proposals for the new path at Maesydre, which one councillor believes presents an issue to the safety of children at the school.

The issue is threatening to cause a delay to the start of a £12m rebuilding of the Ysgol Gymraeg Y Trallwng at the Maesydre site, and centres around a footpath which was blocked off by the building of Welshpool bypass nearly 30 years ago.

The original plans for the school involved the official "stopping up" of the pathway before the Maesydre school site, but this approach threatened to raise an objection from the Open Spaces Society which would have also caused a delay to the scheme, so a compromise route was agreed which saw the path re-routed near the car park of the new school.

However Welshpool Town and County Councillor Phil Pritchard believes the new route presents a safety risk to children as it allows a public footpath to run parallel to the school.

At a meeting of Powys Council's planning, taxi licensing and rights of way committee on Thursday, July 1, Cllr Phil Pritchard had proposed a solution to leave the school “self-contained”, and put forward a motion that the proposal be deferred to allow him to speak to staff and come up with a better alternative.

The delay now poses a threat to the Welsh Government money provided for the project, half of the cost, due to funding timescales in the government's 21st century schools programme.

The town council will meet again to discuss the issue in two weeks once the site visit has been completed. The town council's decision to support the new route or otherwise will then be passed on to Powys County Council for a final decision.