Cymdeithas yr Iaith has sent a message to every councillor in Ceredigion ahead of a key Council meeting next Wednesday (18/6) which will decide the fate of a number of Welsh-medium village schools in the county. Cymdeithas are calling on councillors to spare Ysgol Llanafan and Ysgol Llanddewi Brefi as well as Ysgol Dihewyd, and asking elected members to rein in officers who are riding roughshod over local communities.

In the letter, Cymdeithas Education spokesperson Ffred Ffransis says:

"We call on councillors in Ceredigion to say 'Enough is Enough' to the officers and to uphold the objections to the Closure Notices for Ysgol Llanafan and Ysgol Llanddewi Brefi as well as Ysgol Dihewyd. The Government guidelines insist that a local authority must consider all objections 'with an open mind.'This means that no decision has been made to close any of these schools before the Council meeting next Wednesday when you will be considering the objections. If you did decide to close any of the schools and ignore objections, then parents would have 3 weeks before the end of term to find an alternative school for their children. This is clearly nonsense, and it is obvious therefore that officers have used a tactic of trying to convince parents in advance that their school is going to close in the hope that they will then move their children in advance to other schools - thus turning consultation and any statutory Objections Period into a farce. It is digraceful that parents and governors are being treated in such a way and we ask you to say 'Enough is Enough' to officers and refuse to close schools but rather instruct them to discuss all options with governors who have raised objections."

Mr Ffransis added:

"The Governors' guidelines also insist that a Local Authority considers actively all other options before proposing to close a school. In our objection to the closure of Ysgol Llanafan, Cymdeithas have shown that Ceredigion has not evaluated the alternative of establishing a federation or multi-site school for Llanafan/Llanfihangel/Llanilar which could also potentially be a cheaper option for the provision of future school places than a new-build in a central location. However the officers are obviously certain that governors do not have the financial resources to mount a legal challenge over the failure to consider alternatives and so this duty is ignored - unless you right this wrong. In certain areas, the deliberate overcrowding of schools a couple of years down the line might even be a deliberate ploy to strengthen the case for investment from central government in new buildings for centralised Area Schools. If the Council continue to act in this way, rural communities will become totally disillusioned at the very time when they need to be strengthened."