Investigation to be launched into debts incurred at prestigious high school

Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

An investigation is to be held into why a prestigious high school needs over £440,000 to write off debts incurred for running community sports.

Crickhowell High School announced at the end of March that it would be closing the sports centre outside of school hours. It also stopped running the library from the end of August.

Discussions have been taking place between the school – which is ranked amongst the best in Wales – and Powys Council about the future management of the facility.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Learning and Skills Scrutiny Committee, councillors and independent committee members looked at the council’s budget performance for the first quarter of 2026/2027.

The report will go to a meeting of the Liberal Democrat/Labour cabinet later this month to agree a number of “virements”, which is a mechanism to move money between internal council budgets.

Several of these virements are for schools and education and include a request for £374,000 from the budget management reserve to: “clear the deficit balance associated with sports facilities delivery by Crickhowell High School.”

A further virement of £68,000 is asked for to clear the deficit balance associated with library facilities.

A further request in the report asks for the permanent transfer of the base budget for running Crickhowell Library – this would be £9,000 for the remainder of this financial year, and £15,000 a year from next April onwards.

This would be to the council’s “Community Wellbeing” department, which runs libraries.

Uncomfortable overspends

Committee chairman Cllr Gwynfor Thomas (Conservative – Llansantffraid) said: “I wonder how do you think other schools will see the fairness of these arrangements?

“We have been very uncomfortable with overspends in schools with large deficits, while a debt is being written off here.”

Head of Transforming Education Marianne Evans explained that back in 2014 Crickhowell High School took over management of the “public facing” sports facility, and then in 2016 it took over the running of the town library.

Ms Evans added that back in March 2016 the cabinet agreed a loan of £500,000 so that the school could upgrade its sports facilities – which was to be paid back over 15 years through the income generated there.

The budget for running the library was also passed over to the school.

Ms Evans said: “The school started running into trouble at the time of Covid-19, when they could not generate income. They were also hit by utility costs for running these facilities.

“They have run up a trading deficit of £374,000 and £68,000 on the library. We’ve had discussions with the school, and they have attempted all kinds of initiatives in terms of raising awareness and schemes to increase footfall.”

She then explained that the school had told the council earlier this year that it would cease operating the facilities.

“We have to see this in isolation. The situation occurred over time. There are lessons to be learnt if our schools are managing businesses and ensuring that they are sustainable.

“Examples of this include breakfast and after-school clubs, which the council is ‘keeping a close eye on and challenging that they are sustainable’,” said Ms Evans.

Cllr Gareth E Jones (Powys Independents – Llanelwedd) asked what was happening to the loan.

Ms Evans said that the balance was £377,000, which is being paid back at the rate of £41,000 a year.

Real concern

Cllr Jones said: “I have real concerns about this and have raised it with the monitoring officer (Debby Jones) against the scheme for financing schools.”

He said that he would recommend that the Crickhowell virements should be taken out of the report going to cabinet.

Cllr Jones said this was to: “allow us as scrutiny to do a deep dive into this situation to better understanding and also how this impacts the scheme for financing schools.”

Education portfolio holder Cllr James Gibson-Watt (Liberal Democrat – Glasbury) said that he was “comfortable” with the committee probing the issue.

“Whether cabinet deals now or in a month’s time after you’ve had a deep dive is academic as it will have to be dealt with one way or another,” said Cllr Gibson-Watt.

He added that there was a deal being brokered between the school and a community interest group on running the facilities.

Cllr Gibson-Watt added: “We have to recognise the school took on these facilities because at the time the council was withdrawing (closing) them, so this was a reaction to very controversial proposals.”

Director of Education Dr Richard Jones said: “The reality [is] the impact of running that leisure centre is taking away the focus of school leaders and the business manager from the running of the school.”

The committee voted to agree to holding a deep dive into the financial issues.

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