Labour MP urges Plaid Welsh Government to honour school funding commitment

Martin Shipton

Llanelli MP Dame Nia Griffith is urging the new Plaid Cymru-led Welsh Government to honour Labour’s £27m commitment for a new state-of-the-art special needs school in the town.

Dame Nia said delays and setbacks to the £35m project had caused “huge consternation and anxiety to current pupils and parents, and those waiting for a place at Ysgol Heol Goffa.”

But it is understood that Carmarthenshire County Council does not foresee any problems in getting the funding approved.

Dame Nia has written to Anna Brychan MS, the Cabinet Minister for Education and Welsh Language, calling on her to give “early and full support” by committing to fund 75% of the cost of school.

The previous Education Minister, Labour’s Lynn Neagle, had confirmed the planned new school would be eligible for the 75% funding – the usual figure is 65 per cent – subject to a satisfactory business case.

School campaigners and Llanelli Labour county and town councillors have called for parents and the school community to receive a clear and categorical answer to whether the Plaid Welsh Government will meet the 75% figure in full.

The demand comes days after Plaid’s Carmarthenshire County Council cabinet member for education, Cllr Glynog Davies, was questioned by opposition Labour county group leader councillor Deryk Cundy asking whether the county council’s 25% share – approximately £9m – of funding had been “ring-fenced” for the new school.

Cllr Davies replied: “It hasn’t been, well not yet.”

The statement during a full meeting of the county council angered Labour councillors who have campaigned for years for the new school, putting it at the top of their education priorities.

In December last year Cllr Davies told a full county council meeting: “Yes, the money has been ring-fenced.”

Speaking after last week’s meeting, Cllr Cundy said: “Which version of Glynog Davies’s answers are we, and the school community, to believe?

“Cllr Davies skirted the issue of whether the current Plaid-led Welsh Government had put aside the £27m for the much-needed 150-pupil capacity new school near Ysgol Penrhos in Llanelli.”

Cllr Davies had said the funding depended on the business case which had yet to be carried out.

‘Broken promise’

Campaigners who fought a successful campaign against Plaid’s earlier “broken promise” to build a new school, said publicly after the meeting they feared there could be a £35m “black hole” in the latest Plaid-led county council budget for Ysgol Heol Goffa.

Cllr Davies, who was cabinet member for education when the county council scrapped the original plans for a new school in May 2024, took aim at prominent school campaigner, Labour town councillor Shaun Greaney, accusing him of “a constant state of outrage”.

He claimed the council was “moving ahead with a larger new school’ and said Llanelli Labour had caused “unnecessary distress”.

Cllr Greaney said: ‘It’s disgraceful that Cllr Glynog Davies should now be making out that he is the hero of the school and has been wronged by our criticism. More than 9,000 people signed a protest petition for a new school sparked by Plaid’s broken promises.

‘They know the truth. For Cllr Davies to take umbrage when we reveal the money has not been set aside and protected for the school – an indisputable fact – reeks of political desperation.

“Plaid are trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes and don’t like it that they’ve been caught out.

“Llanelli Labour will continue to fight tooth and nail for the new school to be built as soon as possible for the long-suffering parents, children and staff of Ysgol Heol Goffa.”

Cllr Glynog Davies said: “There’s been no change of plan, so there’s little point in continuing this debate with local Labour councillors about Ysgol Heol Goffa. The process of designing the new 150 pupil school and preparing a planning application continues.

“The Full Business Case is also being prepared, after which an application will be made to the Welsh Government for funding. We’ve worked with the school all along, and they are being kept fully informed about the process.”