Senior councillor wants more scrutiny of proposal to split Ysgol Calon Cymru
A senior councillor has called in the decision to split Ysgol Calon Cymru for further probing
Last month, Powys County Council’s Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet ploughed on with the proposal to split Ysgol Calon Cymru in two.
The Llandrindod Wells campus will become an English-medium secondary school, with the Builth Wells campus transforming into a Welsh-medium all-through primary and secondary school.
The proposal is supposed to take place in phases, with the Welsh-medium aspect at Builth Wells to start in September 2027, while constructing a new school building in Llandrindod Wells is expected to happen by September 2029 at the earliest.
This means that an English stream of pupils will still be taught at Builth Wells until the new build is completed.
Concerns about this part of the proposal and whether the Welsh Government will fund the scheme have been aired, as well as questions around where the Welsh-speaking pupils and teachers are going to come from.
But cabinet was happy to proceed despite risks that the scheme will fall through.
Learning and Skills committee chairman Cllr Gwynfor Thomas (Conservative – Llansantffraid) said that he had initiated the call-in procedure last Thursday (March 5).
This is the last day possible for the call-in to be accepted by Powys council’s head of legal services and monitoring officer Clive Pinney.
Cllr Thomas said: “The reasoning behind the call-in was that the decision was contrary to the policy framework, that the cabinet had not followed proper procedures, and that cabinet did not follow the legal obligations regarding regulations and statutory guidance governing the council’s actions.”
The Learning and Skills committee have harboured major doubts about the proposal for some time.
Back in October, at an earlier stage of the process, members of the Learning and Skills committee had mulled a call-in, as it seemed that “nothing had changed” in the way that cabinet and education officers were proceeding with the proposal after receiving the results of a consultation.
Splitting the schools has received very little support locally, and 35 objections had been lodged with the council during the legal period for formal objections.
