GMB leader John Edmonds opposes government plans

Although the school will be run by the local education authority, the private sector will maintain the buildings.

It comes at the same time as ministers move to head off a union rebellion over plans to increase private sector input into running public services such as schools and hospitals.

Delegates at the TUC conference in Brighton are to debate 19 resolutions about the future of public services and the majority of member have already voiced their hostility to PFI schemes.

The leader of the GMB union, John Edmonds, said the issue could "crack the foundations of the Labour Party".

But the involvement of the private finance initiative in the building of the new school in Pembroke Dock has been welcomed by council leaders.

Pembrokeshire director of education Gerson Davies said the council would not have been able to fund the new school - which is in a deprived area - with its own resources alone.

Ageing school

The new 450-pupil school, which was part-funded by the Welsh Assembly, was built by a private consortium and will be leased back to the local education authority over 30 years.

It will replace the ageing Pembroke Dock Community School, which was built more than 30 years ago but was only supposed to last for 10 years.

The community school will house a new nursery school, a public information centre and a council office.

It will also be home to Pembrokeshire's autistic unit and will boast advanced IT facilities.

It has been built through a partnership between a private consortium and the local authority and will revert to council control in 30 years.

Bitter pill

The council will now pay the company to run the school for the local education authority.

In December 2000, Ysgol Gyfun Penweddig in Aberystwyth became the first state secondary school in Wales to be built and maintained by a private company.

But the introduction of PFI in education has proved a bitter pill for teaching unions to swallow.

The NASUWT believes there is a question mark over who runs privately-maintained schools.

The UK Government's white paper for education, published last week, paved the way for greater private involvement in failing schools.