Council leader claims negotiations underway with Diocese over Catholic super-school funding

Alec Doyle – Local democracy reporter

A council leader has said the authority is negotiating with the Diocese of Wrexham over a financial contribution to the proposed Catholic super-school in north Wales.

Cllr Dave Hughes made the unexpected statement during a meeting of Flintshire County Council’s Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee (CROSC).

Ever since the plans were first made public in January 2025 there have been questions asked about the financing. The proposal – initially costed at £55 million – are expected to receive 85% of its funding from the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Communities for Learning Fund.

The remaining 15% would usually be funded by the Diocese of Wrexham, but due to the significant cost – around £8.25 million – Flintshire County Council planned to fund the Diocese’s contribution through prudential borrowing.

The plans have prompted major public backlash as they involve the closure of St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School in Saltney at the end of this academic year next July.

They also propose the closure of St David’s Catholic Primary in Mold and the Flint schools St Mary’s Catholic Primary and St Richard Gwyn Catholic High.

Flintshire Council and the Diocese of Wrexham has been asked multiple times on the record by councillors, Senedd members, school governors, parents action groups and the Local Democracy Reporting Service about whether the Diocese will make a contribution.

But Thursday’s meeting of CROSC was the first time that any suggestion has been made that Flintshire will not be funding the entire amount.

Questioning Cllr Hughes in the meeting, Liberal Democrat group deputy leader Cllr David Coggins Cogan said: “We’re in month five of the financial year. The contingency reserve is down by another £1.4 million to just £750,000.

“A £680,000 social services spend in one month means we’ve now gone to over £5m overspend on that. Out-of-County placements, again in one month, cost over £900,000 pounds so we’re up to a £2.5m overspend there.

“In the last month, we were presented with black cuts of three and a half million pounds which the Chief Executive said were catastrophic if we chose them for the delivery of services.

“Again, at our last meeting our usually cautious Chief Executive said he can’t rule out a section 114, which is effective bankruptcy for the council.

“So my question chair is for the Leader of the council. How do you and the Cabinet justify taking on a voluntary debt to pay for a school for the Diocese when the same Diocese has paid their full 15% share to two other councils in North Wales?”

Cllr Hughes response took the chamber by surprise.

“That is something that we have to debate with the Diocese,” he said. “The deal is not done yet at all so, I don’t have to justify it, do I?

“We don’t know what’s going to happen with it. I’m aware that there was money given to Bangor and I’m aware that we can put that on the table. But at the moment, negotiations are still going on.”

The statement contradicts previously consistent assertions from Flintshire Council and the Diocese that the full 15% would come from the council, with the Diocese’s only contribution coming in the operation of the completed school.

For example a post-consultation overview presented by officers to a special meeting of Flintshire’s Education, Youth and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee on October 8, 2025 explicitly stated that the 15% contribution ‘would be funded by Flintshire County Council prudential borrowing’.

In the accompanying consultation report – in reference to concerns over the transparency of the funding plans – Flintshire County Council’s formal response was that  ‘there is no financial commitment from the Diocese  to deliver this proposal’.

Both Flintshire County Council and the Diocese of Wrexham were approached for comment.

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