It really saddens us to see how much our once close knit community has been divided by this proposal being pushed by a minority from the village. We have spent nearly a year engaging with community, taking the time to knock doors and listening to what people want. From the last exercise we have hard proof of 750 people against the proposal and need to make you aware that those in support who we spoke to on the doorstep were very few and we encouraged them to let their views to be known. We have always been in support of our children being taught Welsh at the school but are against the total immersion, no parental choice option being peddled under this proposal.
We are aware that a large amount of support letters for the change have been gathered from outside of the village and we have requested an FOI request for a breakdown on postcodes as to where the support and objections have been gathered so it will show where exactly this support has been collected. This evidence is an important factor to enable members to make a decision.
Surely, to decide what is best for the residents of our community it's the people of Llangennech that should have a say. Even without questioning the generated location of the support letters there are still a majority in favour of keeping the dual stream at the school. Unfortunately the results speak for themselves and this has split the village therefore the logical solution would be to keep Welsh and English streams in the school and cater for all. Do you therefore agree that this be best dealt with by delaying this decision until after the May 2017 election, a delay of only 6 months to the whole process, to gauge exactly what the village want which is the way it should have been done rather than letting people from outside the village decide on the fate of our community?
Minutes:
It really saddens us to see how much our once close knit community has been divided by this proposal being pushed by a minority from the village. We have spent nearly a year engaging with community, taking the time to knock doors and listening to what people want. From the last exercise we have hard proof of 750 people against the proposal and need to make you aware that those in support who we spoke to on the doorstep were very few and we encouraged them to let their views to be known. We have always been in support of our children being taught Welsh at the school but are against the total immersion, no parental choice option being peddled under this proposal.
We are aware that a large amount of support letters for the change have been gathered from outside of the village and we have requested an FOI request for a breakdown on postcodes as to where the support and objections have been gathered so it will show where exactly this support has been collected. This evidence is an important factor to enable members to make a decision.
Surely, to decide what is best for the residents of our community it's the people of Llangennech that should have a say. Even without questioning the generated location of the support letters there are still a majority in favour of keeping the dual stream at the school. Unfortunately the results speak for themselves and this has split the village therefore the logical solution would be to keep Welsh and English streams in the school and cater for all. Do you therefore agree that this be best dealt with by delaying this decision until after the May 2017 election, a delay of only 6 months to the whole process, to gauge exactly what the village want which is the way it should have been done rather than letting people from outside the village decide on the fate of our community?
Response by Councillor J.E. Williams, Chair of the E&C Scrutiny Committee
The Chair stated that the process for any proposal had to be conducted in compliance with the statutory School Organisation Code. The School Organisation Code stated that: “under section 53 of the 2013 Act, determination by the proposer must be made within 16 weeks (112 days) of the end of the objection period. Where the proposer fails to determine the proposal within the period of 16 weeks it is taken to have withdrawn the proposal and it is required to republish the proposals if it wishes to proceed.” Again, he added that the decision on whether or not to proceed with the proposal would, by virtue of the law, have to be made on the grounds of whether it was in the best interests of learners. It was, therefore, the educational merits that would have to be the determining factor in decision making, rather than the number of responses received in favour or against the proposal.
The Chair thanked the representatives of the Dual Stream Committee for their questions and contribution at the meeting and stated that members of the Committee appreciated their concerns and would take their views into account during consideration of the next item.