A CWMBRAN primary school devastated by fire earlier this year will continue to use temporary classrooms following a council decision.

The deliberate fire, started in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2016, destroyed the infant and nursery block at Cwmbran’s Coed Eva Primary School.

Following the fire, temporary classrooms were installed to allow the children to continue their education.

Torfaen County Borough Council’s planning department on Tuesday voted to continue to use the temporary facilities until a longer term solution was decided.

Pupils at the school will continue to use the two two-storey Portakabin buildings and one single storey temporary Portaloos building, which will remain at the site under several conditions.

This includes an agreement by Torfaen CBC to remove the temporary accommodation within two years from the date of the meeting.

Cllr Philip Seabourne, of Fairwater ward, said that although the accommodation is “doing the job” a more “permanent fixture” is needed for the children's education.

Planning committee chairman Cllr Brian Mawby, agreed and said “the longer term solution is to build properly and not with temporary accommodation like that”.

A planning report added that the buildings are not suitable for retention on a long term basis and have been granted planning permission to allow time for a “more permanent classroom solution”.

A group of men and boys, aged from 14 to 21, all from the Cwmbran area, were arrested and bailed in January over the blaze.

The group were bailed with the police and fire service carried out a joint investigation, with the planned bail dates changed to Monday, September 5.

Gwent Police are continuing to investigate the incident at Coed Eva, hence the extension in the bail dates, and are still working with fire officials to determine the origins of the fire.

Anyone with information about the incident at Coed Eva Primary School can call the police on 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, quoting log 143 01/01/16.