The building of state of the art new facilities at a Welshpool school is set to finally go ahead after an issue revolving around a footpath appeared to have been resolved.

The row around the route of a footpath which was blocked off nearly 30 years ago was threatening to cause a delay to the start of a £12 million rebuilding of the Ysgol Gymraeg Y Trallwng at the Maesydre site.

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.

County Councillor Phil Pritchard, member for Welshpool Castle, had raised an objection to the new route for the path, saying it represented a safety issue for pupils at the new school.

However, following a site meeting at Maesydre last week, a compromise was reached which involved planting thorny bushes along a security fence near the footpath, which would prevent anyone gaining access to the school site via the new route.

"The planting along the hedge will be of thorny bushes, and will prevent any attempt to enter the school grounds," said Cllr Pritchard.

"There will now be no objections, and the school building programme will continue undisturbed."

Fears were raised that the troubled £12m redevelopment would lose access to Welsh Government grant funding if it was subject to further delays, but with the issue now seemingly resolved, the project was set to get the approval of Welshpool's Town Council before being returned to the county council next week.

A statement from Powys County Council said:

"Last week, county council representatives met with members of Welshpool Town Council as well as Cllr Phil Pritchard, county councillor for Welshpool Castle Ward, at the school site to discuss the planned development.

"As part of the development, a security fence around the school’s green area will be fully planted to provide another level of security for the learners that will attend the new school building."