In a meeting today (Saturday 18th of January), members of Cymdeithas yr Iaith decided that the Government had failed to act on 5 out of 6 policy demands the organisation set out 6 months ago. The 6 points are:
Welsh-medium Education for All - the meeting heard that the government will not consider revising the Second Language Welsh curriculum for a further year.
Fair Funding - the Welsh Government has cut direct spending on the Welsh language, and has not published an assessment of the impact of their budget on the language.
Make Welsh the language of work - the Government does not have an action plan that will ensure that more public bodies follow Gwynedd Council’s example
Clear Language Rights - the meeting deemed the “language standards” published by the government to be unclear when it came to the right to access leisure activities through the medium of Welsh. The standards may be too weak to ensure that public bodies like Torfaen Council deal with failures in their Welsh language provision. Community-focused Planning System - the Government’s draft Planning Bill shows that they do not intend to re-form the planning system along the lines Cymdeithas has called for. Not only is the TAN20 published by the Government weak, it’s irrelevant to most parts of Wales.Welsh central to Sustainable Development - the meeting felt that the Government, by centralising power and services, is changing or ignoring the concept of Sustainable Development completely.
The organisation’s chair, Robin Farrar, announced that Cymdeithas will begin a period of direct action to put pressure on the government to act.
He said: “We will begin the first stage of a campaign of direct actions on the first of February, which will lead to a protest at the Urdd Eisteddfod in May.”