Report criticised for failing to explain scrapping of multi-million-pound new school

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

A concerned councillor criticised a council report for omitting the reasons why plans for a £31 million new school had been scrapped.

Speaking at Conwy’s education and scrutiny committee meeting at Bodlondeb this week, Cllr Paul Luckock said a report proposing the amalgamation of schools was lacking information.

At the meeting, councillors backed plans to start a public consultation on streamlining proposals to amalgamate four schools into two whilst placing another two under single management.

If agreed by cabinet, Conwy will begin a public consultation on a ‘federation’ between Ysgol Llanddoged and Ysgol Ysbyty Ifan in Kinmel Bay.

Public consultation

The public consultation will also seek opinions on the proposed amalgamation of Ysgol Glan Gele and Ysgol Sant Elfod in Abergele as well as the amalgamation of Ysgol Y Foryd and Ysgol Maes Owen in the Conwy Valley.

A federation means schools remaining at their current sites whilst sharing a governing body and management structure whereas ‘amalgamation’ describes a formal and legal process in which two or more existing schools become one.

But Cllr Luckock criticised the report on the cost-cutting measures as lacking information.

He said the report on the proposed merger of Ysgol Glan Gele and Ysgol Sant Elfod hadn’t included an explanation to parents and residents on why a new school building had been shelved for the two schools if they merged.

Councillors then heard how plans had been scrapped when the Welsh Government refused to pay the £31.5m needed to build the new school in Abergele.

“My concern is in relation to the information in the consultation documents because, as people know, I always believe the maximum facts and information you can provide to the public is in the public interest,” he said.

“The big disappointment with this is when I was elected in May 2022, we were talking about having a new school, a new primary school, and that involved not just Sant Elfod’s and Glan Gele but also Glan Morfa moving to a new site as well. So that was all very positive, and then that fell through.

“Now I do think in the report, there needs to be some explanation of that to our residents and parents, so they understand. It may need to be only a paragraph, but I think that paragraph should be in that report.”

Cost

He added: “I think that is important for people locally to know. Now some people know because local councillors have clearly told them that the Welsh Government wouldn’t give us the money to do it. It (the cost) was going up all the time.

“I think in the end it was about £31.5m (for the school) we were looking for. But I think that needs to be explained in the consultation document.”

Cllr Luckock was then told by the meeting’s chair that the report simply explained the new school was unaffordable.

Cabinet member for education Cllr Julie Fallon claimed limited information was less likely to cause the public to disengage from the report.

“It is quite clear the initial proposal to merge schools and build a new school is financially unaffordable at present, and the second option is to explore amalgamation of those schools,” she said about the report.

“I think that’s the information parents need. I don’t know if anyone thinks there should be something further. We could add a little more detail there, but I just think that’s quite clear.”

Conwy’s head of education Dr Lowri Brown had also said the council relied on councillors to spread messages in the community.

“I think that this is where we do rely on our local authority representatives, in terms of elected members on governing bodies within the communities, because you’ve been part of these discussions and this journey with us for some time.

“The challenges that we face in not being able to access capital funding, the financial situation that we find ourselves in as the local authority, so I think it is about sharing these key messages as well with parents in the community.”