Members of Cymdeithas yr Iaith will be picketing councillors on their way in to a vital meeting of Ceredigion Council (9am tomorrow Tues 30/6 Aberaeron) which will reconsider the decision to publich a Statutory Closure Notice for Ysgol Syr John Rhys, Ponterwyd.In a message to the councillors, Cymdeithas say that the process which led to the decision to close the school was so hurried and flawed that the Education Minister would be certain to overturn the decision on appeal. Cymdeithas therefore argue that it is better for councillors to instruct their officials to re-engage with parents and the local community to seek a consensus as to the way forward.

BACKGROUNDA panel of councillors and officials was set up and reviewed the future of 9 village schools in Ceredigion in a series of meetings on April 1st and 2nd. Governors, Heads and local councillors were summoned to re-appear before the panel on April 24th to hear the decisions for their schools. Statutory Consultation meetings were then held with parents and governors at each school during the month of May. All the original panel decisions (close 5 schools, defer a decision for a term on 2 others, and asking 2 further schools to enter into agreements with nearby schools) were confirmed at a Cabinet meeting on 2nd June, the statutory consultation having changed nothing. The Education Scrutiny Committee called in the decision to issue a Closure notice for Ysgol Ponterwyd, and this will now be the subject of discussion at the Councilk meeting in Aberaeron tomorrow.INCREDIBLEResponding to this flawed process, Cymdeithas education spokesperson, Ffred Ffransis, commented that:"It is incredible that the Council have steamrollered through plans to close 5 schools and threaten others within a matter of weeks. The Council claimed that its panel reviewed the future of 9 different schools in two days on the 1st and 2nd of April. Within a further 3 weeks (including the Easter holiday break) the Council had considered the results of these 9 reviews and had reached decisions on April 24th. Within a further month (May), the statutory Consultation meetings with parents and governors were held at all these locations - a month being the minimum time allowed normally for just one single consultation. The Council did not have the time nor the respect to produce an individual document detailing the options for every individual school, it did not have either the time or the will to produce Impact Studies on the language and the local communities; in fact it ignored all these steps which are required by Assembly guidelines before closure is proposed. Instead of all these detailed documents, Cabinet members had just one general document - with an average of 3 pages for each school - in front of them at their meeting on 2nd June. On the basis of this hastily-prepared and inadequate document, they decided to take out schools which had served their communities for generations."Mr Ffransis added:"There isn't the slightest chance in the world that the Education Minister would decide that the Council have given du attnetion to each indivdual case on the basis of this evidence, and the sort of blanket closures proposed by the Council are not lawful. The Minister would be certain to uphold an appeal by parents at Ponterwyd and any other school appealing against the Closure Notices. It would therefore be better for the Council tomorrow to withdraw the notices and to instruct officers to re-engae with the communities in a meaningful way to seek consensus as to the best way forward. Councillors tomorrow can do justice with the school and community at Ponterwyd."MISLEADINGCymdeithas have also warned councillors that the decision to close Ysgol Ponterwyd is illegal because of another basic flaw in the consultation process. The minutes of the Public Consultation Metting - held at Ponterwyd on 22nd May - appear in the document upon which Cabinet members made their decision. According to the minutes, the education Director explained the consultation process saying "No objections - it is the decision of the Council. Objections - decision by the Education Minister". It is minuted that the effect of this (misleading) explanation was for someone in the audience to propose "that no objections be made so as to keep the decision with the County Council". No written objections werre placed before the Cabinet as a result. Ffred Ffransis commented:"I am sure that this was an inadvertent slip by the Director, but the effect of this misleading information was that parents and governors were mistakenly given to believe that it was in their interests not to send in objections to the Council's proposal, nor detailed letters nor petitions, as part of the statutory consultation. As a result, officers had no detailed written responses nor alternative proposals to consider and, within 5 working days, they had proposed to the Cabinet to carry on with the policy of issuing a Closure Notice for the school. As a result of this basic error, Cabinet members had no detailed objections nor alernative proposals from Ponterwyd in froint of them in reaching their decision - merely bullet-points by officers describing in general terms the sort of objections raised at the meetings. Neither was there any specific document dedicated to Ponterwyd. As a result the Cabinet - with its delegated responsibility on behalf of the Council - was not in any position to make an informed decision as to the fate of the school in Ponterwyd. The misleading information effectively dprived the community in Ponterwyd of the right to offer a detailed written critique of the officers' proposals or mount a campaign to show the wide extent of opposition, nor the opportunity to present detailed alternatives. As a result, the Council must withdraw this notice tomorrow or bring the whole process into disrepute."The information given by the Director was incorrect and misleadingas offering detailed written objections to the officers' proposals during a statutory consultation process does not deprive the council itself of the opportunity of making the decision. To the contrary, the whole point of the consultation process is to seek out such repsonses and explore detailed alternatives before the Council finally decides to issue a Statutory Closure Notice. AFTER a Statutory Closure Notice is isued (i.e. AFTER the Council has made its final decision on the school) THEN any written objection means that the issue goes to the Minister for Education on appeal. Through stating that written objections should not be made BEFORE the decision to issue a Closure Notice, the Council was depriving the parents of mounting an effective opposition to their plans, and depriving Cabinet members of the opportunity to study detailed objections and alternatives and invalidates everything