At lunchtime today, Cymdeithas yr Iaith have sent a team of inspectors into Carmarthenshire Coungil HQ in Carmarthen to find out whether or not the Council itself is setting an example in promoting the Welsh Language. The inspectors are asking staff during their lunchtime break to what extent they are carrying out their work in Welsh.

 

Cymdeithas yr Iaith chair in Carmarthenshire said "It's not our intention today to disrupt the the work of the Council in any way, but rather to establish that the Council is still putting on a bilingual mask for the public while carrying out the vast majority of its own work in English. For things to change the Council must set an example and put its own house in order."

 

The inspection comes a year to the day after 500 Cymdeithas supporters descended upon County Hall in Carmarthen to demand radical new measures to promote Welsh following the disastrous Census results which showed the decline in the number of Welsh speakers to be worse in Carmarthenshire than anywhere else in Wales.

 

Celebration Party

The Council has set up a Working Group to draw up a new strategy to support the language and Welsh-speaking communities, and it is expected to report in the late Spring. Cymdeithas have organised a giant party at the Carmarthenshire Council unit on the field of the National Eisteddfod in Llanelli in August to "celebrate" the Council adopting a bold new strategy to promote the language.

 

Sioned Elin explained: "The eyes of Wales will be on Carmarthenshire during the Eisteddfod week, and this will be one of the largest gatherings ever on the Eisteddfod field. We have made the Party a Facebook Event and, over 6 months in advance, already over 200 people have said that they are attending. We expect a thousand people to come to the Carmarthenshire unit at the Eisteddfod, and sincerely hope that there will be cause for celebration. Otherwise a 1000 people will ask the question why not."