Smallest school in county’s fate delayed by Welsh translation issue

A decision to close the smallest school in a Welsh county has been delayed because of technical problems affecting the translation of comments made in Welsh by a councillor

On Tuesday, February 18 members of Powys council’s Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet received a report on the consultation held on proposals to close Ysgol Bro Cynllaith in Llansilin near Oswestry.

The consultation had been held between October 3 and November 24 and comments received were overwhelmingly against the closure.

Despite this education officers had recommended that that Cabinet receive the consultation report and press ahead with the legal process which would see the 25 pupil school close at the end of August 31.

Feedback

Plaid Cymru’s Cllr Bryn Davies had been allowed to speak on the proposal as he represents the Banwy, Llanfihangel and Llanwddyn ward which neighbour’s the Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant and Llansilin ward, which is represented by his brother, Conservative group leader Cllr Aled Davies.

About 30 minutes into the debate Cllr Davies started speaking in Welsh – which caused problems with feedback from the translation system at the chamber in county hall.

He was asked to stop and allow others to come in and speak as efforts were made to sort out the issues.

A few minutes later Cllr Davies was brought back in to have his say but the problems returned.

Deputy council leader Labour’s Cllr Matthew Dorrance who was chairing the meeting asked for advice on what to do, as he and others could not hear what Cllr Davies was saying.

Cllr Dorrance said: “I’ve taken the decision that we will relocate to the chief executive’s office.”

Cabinet members then left the chamber in the hope of being able to hear Cllr Davies contribution in the office.

Moving on…

Nearly 30 minutes later the meeting resumed – but Cabinet had moved on to discuss other items on the agenda- with no mention made of the school.

At the end of the meeting Cllr Dorrance said: “We deferred the item on Bro Cynllaith as we could not hear a member’s contribution, so this meeting is not formally closed yet.

“We are going to reconvene later this week – so the same meeting will continue to conclude the business of item four (Bro Cynllaith) on this agenda.”

He added that council staff were trying to identify a time for the meeting to be restarted.

Cllr Dorrance continued: “Can I offer my apologies to all those participating and the community that were watching the debate.

“I felt it was important that everybody’s contribution was heard  before we moved to a vote.”

Earlier in the meeting, chairman of the Learning and Skills scrutiny committee, Cllr Gwynfor Thomas has outlined his committee’s concerns over the closure proposal as had local member Cllr Aled Davies.

These centred around the potential loss of pupils to schools in the Oswestry area of Shropshire and concerns that Powys council would have to pay to transport them there.