Action for Children, the charity that operates Headlands School, has submitted a planning application to restore the long-vacant building on Paget Road once known as the Penarth Hotel.

They hope to undertake "extensive" internal alterations and build extensions in order to "provide our school and community with an excellent range of exciting learning and social spaces".

"The alternative is [the building] could possibly and likely be lost forever in the passage of time," said Chris Lodge, founder of CLC, the consultancy who designed the plans in accordance with the school's specifications.

If approved by the Vale of Glamorgan Council, the restoration project will see the building turned a multi-use space.

It will include a variety of classrooms designed to meet the needs of those who attend Headlands - children, teenagers and young adults who have often experienced early developmental trauma or are on the autistic spectrum.

The first floor will comprise a 'nurture room', 'progression to leaving room', staffroom and work area, 'sensory room', storage area, 'kinaesthetic learning space', 'pressure relief space', 'moving up space'.

The second floor will be converted into a sixth form cafe and coffee shop, commercial kitchen, 'creative mindspace' and 'learning to live space'.

The basement will become a fitness suite and multi-activity hall, designed in part to help students express themselves through performance.

Green roofs and an ecology deck will be installed. The extensions will be "externally clad in brickwork".

Mr Lodge says the development would increase capacity for pupil accommodation through freeing up other buildings currently used as classrooms.

"All other buildings on the Campus are fully utilized. Many of the pupils now live in accommodation provided in the main off site.

"But local to the School itself, Buildings that will possibly be released due to this proposal being brought to fruition would likely be used to increase this pupil accommodation to match increasing demand."

The site is one of Penarth's 53 grade II listed buildings. Built in 1868, the building was originally a hotel frequented by sea captains and wealthy businessmen from Penarth Docks.

After the Penarthian Major John Angel Gibbs was killed during the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, his wife Glady Gibbs bought the hotel and donated it to the National Children's Home as a memorial to her husband.

It served as a children's home until 1990, when it became an Independent Special school. The building itself has fallen into disuse for many years.

Mr Lodge said that existing features would be preserved where possible.

For more details, please visit the Vale of Glamorgan Planning Website.

The Council is currently awaiting consultation responses from Penarth Town Council and the Joint Committee of the National Amenity Societies.

Updates to follow.