Cymdeithas yr Iaith have made a request under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act for Carmarthenshire County Council to publish the minutes of a committee which was set up to advise on the promotion of the Welsh language in the county. The County Council set up a Welsh Language Advisory Panel following the decision at April's Council meeting to adopt a new language strategy.

Cymdeithas yr Iaith called for the meetings of the Panel to be open to the public and for the minutes to be published on the Council's website. However a meeting of the panel last Monday (6th October) was told that this would not be in keeping with the Council's constitution.

Cymdeithas Field Officer in Dyfed, Bethan Willliams commented: "The Welsh Language belongs to everyone in the County and it is important that the meetings of the panel should be open to the public and that its minutes should be freely available to promote public discussion about ways forward to safeguard the Welsh language and communities. It was the Council itself which decided on the procedure to set up an advisory panel, and so this cannot be used as an excuse to keep the discussions behind closed doors.
We understand that the Council may well take steps in the future to resolve the matter by amending its constitution, but we have decided to move immediately to apply for the publication of the minutes under Freedom of Information legislation so that there is no further delay in discussing the implementation of the language strategy."

On Saturday 17th January - nine months following the adoption of the new language strategy, Cymdeithas are organising an open meeting in Carmarthen at which the public will be invited to judge if the Council are taking serious steps to implement the new strategy.