AN ABERGAVENNY charitable trust is on course to take over a former primary school in the New Year.

The campaign group Abergavenny Community Trust Ltd plans to turn Park Street Primary into a community hub after Monmouthshire council carried out £56,000 of essential repairs to the building on Park Street.

The building, which has been empty since 2006, needed repairs that included the removal of asbestos, a new fire alarm and emergency lighting, before it can be leased to the group.

As landlord, the council is required to undertake a number of health and safety surveys and remedial works prior to occupation.

The council’s cabinet supported the move to carry out the work late last year but the decision was called-in and referred to the full council which made the final decision behind closed doors.

Abergavenny Community Centre Ltd has been in negotiations with the County Council which owns the site, for sometime after plans to sell it for £300,000 were shelved in 2011.

The building is now safe to handover to the group to secure a 25-year lease to use the site as a centre for teaching as well as being a social hub and place to hold activities such as a luncheon club for pensioners, workshops and support for young people and parents.

The council previously spent around £20,100 removing the deteriorating demountable buildings and dealing with urgent issues and security breaches at the school, which closed following the biggest shake up of primary education ever seen in Monmouthshire.

Marion Pearse, one of three directors of ACT, said: “After ten years of developing a social and business case for the community-led enterprise, we’re very pleased to say that we’ve reached the starting line.”

Ms Pearse said once the lease begins activities at the centre will begin immediately.

“We will start with a place to meet and the warmth of people who care about other people that live here. The rest will follow,” she added.

A council spokesman said the works have been completed and there are no outstanding matters from the council’s perspective.