Cymdeithas yr Iaith have asked Carmarthenshire County Council for urgent clarification as to why there is still no mechanism in place to implement a radical new language strategy which the Council adopted in early April.

Local Cymdeithas chair Sioned Elin explained  “A newly constituted Welsh-Language Advisory Panel apparently held its first meeting early last week, but made no progress at all in the implementation of the strategy and does not intend to meet again until late September or early October. That will be a full 5 months of inaction since the Council adopted the language strategy. The Council is showing no sense of urgency in responding to the crisis shown by the Census figures and is in danger of losing a historic opportunity afforded by all-party support for a new language strategy.

She continued “Worse still, the Council appears to have broken immediately one of the key recommendations of the report which it adopted by advertising inside and outside Wales for a new Director of Social Care, Health and Housing with no requirement to be able to work through the medium of Welsh.”

Cymdeithas have contacted the Council asking for urgent clarification as to whether there are any serious intentions to implement a language strategy and has called a meeting of all its members in Carmarthenshire to decide whether a celebration of the new strategy to be held on the National Eisteddfod Field in Llanelli next month will now be turned into a protest.