Cabinet set to decide on the future of Welsh-medium rural School

Stephen Price

After a year-long campaign by Governors and the local community, supported by Cymdeithas yr Iaith, the Cabinet of Carmarthenshire County Council is set to discuss next Monday (5/10) the recommendation to close Ysgol Meidrim, near Sanclêr, which is on the Government’s list of rural schools for which there is a presumption against closure.

In June 2026, plans to close two primary schools have taken a step forward despite strong opposition and a plea from a councillor – with Welsh language campaigners labelling public consultations an expensive waste of time that do not change outcomes.

Carmarthenshire Council Cabinet members agreed to publish statutory notices to proceed with the closure of Ysgol Meidrim, north of St Clears, and Ysgol Y Fro, between Carmarthen and Pontyberem.

Cllr Jean Lewis, speaking on behalf of Ysgol Meidrim, said the closing the school would be “closing the door on the future of the community”.

Cllr Glynog Davies, cabinet member for education, said he understood the strength of feeling but concluded that closure was the most appropriate option.

Full council will make any final decision on both schools after considering any further objections.

Ysgol Meidrim and Ysgol Y Fro had been selected for review following a viability assessment. Low pupil numbers, high surplus places, a budget deficit or projected budget deficit, and varied quality of education were among the issues were identified.

A formal consultation on their future was launched following a meeting last November and cabinet heard that 247 of the 260 Ysgol Meidrim responses and 65 of the 71 Ysgol Y Fro responses objected to closure.

Several of the Ysgol Meidrim responses highlighted pupils’ fears around safety, fitting in, and losing a sense of belonging if they were to transfer to a new school.

“Parents described home education not as a preferred option, but as a potential last resort if their children were required to move to a larger or more distant school environment,” said a report before cabinet.

Ysgol Meidrim had 32 pupils at the beginning of 2026 and also 22 young people from the catchment area who attended other schools. Ysgol Y Fro had 15 pupils and 66 young people from the catchment area at other schools.

Cllr Davies said sustainability was a vitally important factor for schools and that it was challenging to give pupils “complete education due to multiple year groups in the same class”.

He said consultation responses had been analysed and addressed in the report, and that he sympathised with people’s concerns.

“I recognise the strength of feeling expressed by many of the responses,” said Cllr Davies. “Having balanced these views, the local authority remains of the view that proceeding (to statutory notice) is the most appropriate option in the long-term interest of learners and the wider school system.”

Cllr Lewis, who represents the Trelech ward and isn’t a cabinet member, said young people were being pushed out of their communities in Wales and that it was not happening by accident. “We are causing this ourselves,” she said.

“When you close a school, it’s not (just) a building, you are closing the door on the future of the community. No young families, no future, no balance. It’s as simple as that.”

Cllr Lewis questioned the level of savings that would be made if the school was to close, given additional home to school transport costs, and said the Meidrim community had worked hard to come up with alternative proposals including creating a community hub and offering early years education provision.

“Today I appeal to you to listen to the community,” said Cllr Lewis. “What you decide today will shape and impact the community for many years to come. Support a small rural school with a huge heart, and be fair.”

Cllr Alun Lenny, as the grandfather of a pupil at Ysgol Llansteffan, which is going to close, said he understood how parents felt. But he referred to the significant number of young people in the Ysgol Meidrim and Ysgol Y Fro catchment areas who were attending other schools, and said a wider issue was Wales’ declining birthrate.

Cllr Aled Vaughan Owen said “nobody wants to have to make these decisions”, while council leader Linda Evans said she’d “lost sleep worrying about this”.

If the schools are shut in due course by the Plaid-Independent-led council, pupils from Ysgol Meidrim would transfer to Ysgol Griffith Jones or Ysgol Hafodwenog, while pupils from Ysgol Y Fro would transfer to Ysgol Y Dderwen.

Eight cabinet members voted to proceed with statutory notices for both schools and there was one abstention.

‘Going through the motions’

As the agenda for the meeting was published today on the Council’s website, Cymdeithas yr Iaith in Carmarthenshire said that it is likely that the substantive decision was already taken in a meeting behind closed doors last week, and all that remains is to go through the motions and the ritual public show of hands at the formal public meeting of the Cabinet on Monday.

On behalf of Cymdeithas members in Carmarthenshire, Ffred Ffransis explained: “It is such a disappointment to learn that the Cabinet has rejected the path of co-operation with the Governors and local community who have worked so hard during the last year both to further improve educational standards and to draw up a detailed and ambitious plan to establish, adjacent to the school site, a Community Hub which would include childcare, training and community activities in an integrated Welsh-medium Regeneration Centre.

“The Governors drew up a detailed plan which identified extra sources of income both to establish and to run the centre.

“It appears, however, that the Council has chosen rather the simple option of writing off the school and the community, viewing such schools as problems rather than as assets.

“Even more disappointing is the fact that members of the Cabinet have consistently refused to speak to parents whose children’s education they are disrupting and whose community they are writing off.

“The councillors rely instead solely on reports summarising all the evidence, views and plans of governors and the community. And the recommendation is to write off the school and community for an estimated saving of £13,000 after subtracting extra transport costs.”

Mr Ffransis added: “Worse still we understand that such a far-reaching decision, affecting people’s lives, will have been effectively taken at a meeting held behind closed doors almost a fortnight before the official public Cabinet meeting.

“These meetings are called ‘Pre-Cabinet meetings’ and are attended by all Cabinet members and officers, and this is where the substantive discussions take place and recommendations are drawn up – all out of the scrutiny of the public and the press and with no publicly-available minutes.

“This is where a school and community are written off into the history books, and all that remains is then to go through the motions and take the formal decision at the Cabinet meeting next week. It is heartbreaking to see a Welsh-speaking community written off in this way.”

Unless there is a change of heart at the Cabinet meeting, the motion to close Ysgol Meidrim will then be sent to the full Council meeting for a final decision on 14 October.

Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s final message to that meeting will be: “The Council’s own Consultation Paper showed that under normal circumstances there would be almost 40 pupils at Ysgol Meidrim in January 2028.

“If Meidrim is to close, then 20 other Welsh-medium rural schools in Carmarthenshire are immediately under threat, and that will be the end of our Welsh-speaking rural communities.”

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