County planner given Welsh language lesson after poor village name pronunciation
Elgan Hearn – Local democracy reporter
Poor pronunciation of a village name saw a county planner given a Welsh language lesson by a councillor during a meeting.
Plans to knock-down an outbuilding and build a two storey extension at number one Kinghead cottages at Dolau near Llandrindod Wells were in front of Powys County Council’s Planning committee meeting on Wednesday February 19.
Maddie Watkin who works in the council’s planning department had applied to do the work on the building which is on the west end of an eight cottage terrace.
Plans for the extension show that a home office is included in the proposal.
Application
Llanfihangel Rhydithon community council had discussed the application in November and supported it.
The council said they are: “pleased to encourage new families to the community.”
As the application was by a member of staff, committee solicitor Rachel Mole said that as she had looked at the file.
“In line with the protocol I have reviewed the file and can confirm it has been processed as normal,” said Ms Mole.
Planning office Luke Woosnam said: “As the proposed extension is on the west side of the dwelling, I don’t consider there will be any concerns over loss of light or privacy to any of the neighbours.
“My recommendation is one of consent.”
Report
Plaid Cymru’s Cllr Elwyn Vaughan said: “This is a comprehensive report and coming to committee is a formality, I have no hesitation in recommending approval of the report.
“Although I would say the place is not called ‘Doli’ that’s a child’s toy it’s pronunciation is ‘Dolau’.”
Mr Woosnam apologised for his mispronunciation of Dolau when he presented his report.
Cllr Vaughan’s proposal was backed by Powys Independent’s Cllr Ed Jones.
A vote was then taken, and councillors unanimously approved the application.
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This is just not acceptable. You have a planning officer Luke Woosnam making decisions about a village whose name he cannot pronounce? Credit to Plaid Cymru’s Cllr Elwyn Vaughan for educating him. This is why it’s so important that our schools teach Welsh from a young age. I know some people that cannot even say their own surname properly. And they are Welsh? Totally embarrassing. Another bugbare of mine is newscasters. How many times do you hear them mispronounce Welsh place names on TV, where if doing a story about, say France, enunciate as if they were Parisians. Worse still,… Read more »
I have a very strong aversion to people rhyming Prichard with hard, not how one might pronounce Richard…
TBH, the ‘ch’ in Cymraeg should be pronounced ‘chhhh’ (as in ‘Loch’ Ness or the sound a cat might make when upset). However if one sticks to the phonetics (and heavens, we all know that Cymraeg isn’t officially a phonetic language), ‘Prichard’ becomes Pri’ch’ (think cat)ard, which results in him sounding rather Scouse!
Absolutely my aunt Mrs Bucket has a similar problem she is not English
As someone whose middle name is Lloyd and whose family come from Llanelli one one side, and Brynammon on the other, but was born and raised in England, I cannot tell you how frustrating your sort of attitude is. No matter how proud of my heritage I am, no matter that I learnt to pronounce my name and placenames from an early age, no matter that I learnt to sing my anthem, someone will always make a remark or give me a look when I visit the land of my fathers. Worse is when it happens to my dad, who… Read more »
I can understand that not everyone wants to learn our language, but if you live in Wales not taking the trouble to learn how to pronounce it is just lazy.
As someone who used to in that area – can’t tell you how often I heard “Llandridnod Wells”. I guess some people are even too lazy to read
All I can say (a rwy’n caru’r iaith Gymraeg), is that if a guy with the surname ‘Woosnam’ (possibly the greatest golfer ever from Cymru) can’t be allowed a little tolerance, then we’re ‘doomed, Mr. Mainwaring!’
If he took his ‘schooling’ in good spirit, then I’m prepared to forgive.
Ond, beth am gofrestru am un o’r cyrsiau Cymraeg i oedolion sydd ar gael? Maen nhw ar gael i gynghorwyr a gweithwyr y siroedd yng Nghymru am ddim! Dim esgus wedyn, yn symud ymlaen!
Fifty years ago I was living in north Radnorshire’s Ithon valley, not too far from Dolau. As I recall, the routine pronunciation of the village’s name among locals was indeed ‘Dolly’.
Back then I also knew some folk called Woosnam living near me, so it seems a reasonable assumption that the Mr Woosnam cited here might be a local. If so, you can hardly blame him for, probably unconsciously, pronouncing the name in the way that most of the folk with whom he grew up pronounce it!
Well it’s nice to see little Dolau hitting th headlines although I’m sure there’s far more going on there than this! I was fortunate enough to go to school in th village, back when they were fortunate enough to have one, along with a village shop, too. But when I lived in th village, most people referred to it as ‘dolli’ in much th same way as many people pronounce ‘dolgelli’ instead of Dolgellau. It’s odd, how times change….