Fourteen major language groups have made a written plea for changes to the Assembly Government's Welsh language law plans. In an open letter to the Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones, the organisations and individuals - including teaching union UCAC, Friends of the Earth Cymru and language specialist Professor Colin Williams - argue:"The language is facing threats from many directions: cuts in S4C's budget, the Assembly scrapping its bilingual record of proceedings, and the future of Welsh-medium education in the capital city. The lack of linguistic rights to, and official status for, Welsh, are central to these challenges.""We welcome the Government's efforts to develop legislation to affirm the Welsh language's situation. However, since the publication of the draft Welsh Language Measure organisations, lawyers and specialists have been unanimous in their view that the Measure in its present form does not fulfil the Government's promises."

"....we want to see an unambiguous statement that the Welsh language is an official language in Wales, a statement never before included in previous legislation. Now is the time to take that step.""The evidence shows that linguistic rights, official status and an independent Commissioner would improve services through the medium of Welsh for our members across Wales . These are the amendments that we would like you, as Minister, to table to the Welsh Language Measure."Speaking about the letter, Tegwen Morris, National Director of women's voluntary group Merched y Wawr commented:"Now is a very important time for the language, and this letter is a sign of the fact that the Welsh Government could do more to strengthen their draft law for the benefit of everyone in Wales. This letter will add to the pressure on them to fulfil their promises. We will have to wait to see if the administration has the political will to strengthen it or not."Author and language campaigner Catrin Dafydd added:"I welcome this letter because it adds to the calls from solicitors and barristers of high regard in Wales who are in favour of strengthening the measure substantially. This is now a consensus amongst organisations, language and legal experts that the Measure, in its present form, doesn't deliver the Government's promises.""It's extremely significant that so many organisations, as well as specialists in the legal field, are raising the question of the lack of an unambiguous statement which gives official status to the Welsh language. It's also clear that the proposed law doesn't establish rights to Welsh for individuals either."