HEREFORD Sixth Form College could be set to receive a number of new students from the Hay-on-Wye area.

A meeting held on Tuesday heard that Gwernyfed High School in Three Cocks is likely to lose its further education department from September 2017.

And many of the students affected would either be heading to Hereford or Kington to take their A-Levels.

The plans which are out for public consultation would see the border school close in 2019/2020 and pupils transferred to a newly built Brecon school.

James Gibson-Watt, councillor for Glasbury, branded the scheme as a 'very expensive' experiment and said that pupils were already looking at Herefordshire secondary schools.

He said: "There will be no significant advantage of this idea.

"There is no doubt that pupils from Hay, Clyro, and Talgarth will be will very likely to try and access secondary and post-16 education as they have two good schools nearby.

"In the interim all this uncertainty is going to drive people over the border pretty quickly."

"I was chatting to a teacher at Lady Hawkins School who said they would welcome as many pupils from Powys as needed and that the council would be bonkers to close Gwernyfed."

Sixth form pupils from Gwernyfed High School (GHS) will instead be expected to travel to the Brecon campus of the NPTC for their sixth form education under the Powys County Council plans.

However, a survey carried out by Year 10 pupils at the Three Cocks school in 2015 showed that only two pupils would be prepared to travel to Brecon campus of the NPTC for their sixth form education.

Ian Charlesworth, chair of governors at GHS said: "The proposals lack vision and clearly do not aspire to a transformational educational learning experience.

"We have been invited to make our views known through the consultation period and we will certainly be doing that and encourage everyone to do the same.

"We will be monitoring the process closely to ensure that it complies fully with the Welsh Government's Code. We will fight these proposals with everything that comes to hand.

We expect the best of our pupils and we get it. We hope for the best from our democratic leaders and are yet again disappointed."

Cllr Gareth Radcliffe, councillor for Hay-on-Wye, challenged the decision to close the school and said that in 2018/19 Gwernyfed would have a £1,000 surplus compared to Brecon High School's deficit of £1.4 million.

He added: "A new building doesn't raise the standard of teaching in it.

"The Gwernyfed catchment area have seen schools closing themselves because of uncertainty like this.

"This consultation will be overturned and with this political naivety the community will suffer."

The Welsh Government have match funded £22.6 million with the council for the new Brecon school.

Powys County Council leader Barry Thomas said that this was an important consultation 'to get right'.

He added: "We have this money from the Welsh Assembly to spend on these schools so it is important to get it right as we can only do it once.

"We encourage members of the public to come forward and make their representations so we can then make an informed decision."

Governors at Gwernyfed High School are holding a school reorganisation tonight to discuss their response to the consultation.