Former Wales footballer Danny Gabbidon could feature on a large sign at the entrance to a new £2.2m sports pitch on the site of his former school.
Danny, who now works as a TV and radio broadcaster, won 49 caps for his country, and played for clubs including West Ham, Cardiff City, QPR and Crystal Palace.
The school closed in 2015 and pupils merged with Fairwater Comprehensive School to form the new Cwmbran High School. Hundreds of homes and the new Llantarnam Primary School have been built on the site and in the area- and this triggered what is known as a S106 agreement – where a developer signs a legal agreement that sets out what extra work they will do in an area to help replace the loss of other facilities from new homes being built.
Extra cash for the Llantarnam 3G pitch
Extra cash from other funding sources has also been invested into the new floodlit 3G pitch: £971,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, £923,000 from the Section 106 agreement, £250,000 from the Cymru Football Foundation and £56,000 from Sport Wales.
A condition of the Cymru Football Foundation grant is that priority must go to women’s football bookings on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings.
A committee formed from the primary school’s governors plans to take on the lease for the new pitch and use an online booking system. They will be able to invest any profits into the school after the site’s running costs have been paid.
The Danny Gabbidon sign
The planning application features an image of Danny next to the word ‘Gabbidon’ in block capitals, his autograph and ‘2002’ – the year he made his debut for Wales. The sign would be about 7m long and 2m wide and installed on the top of the fence surrounding the new pitch by the entrance gate.