Cymdeithas yr Iaith will hold a meeting to discuss campaigning for the reversal of changes to Ceredigion’s community and town councils which could “put Welsh at risk”.

At the beginning of May this year, the Welsh Government accepted recommendations from the Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru to merge Ceredigion’s community and town councils, creating new wards and reducing the number of councillors.

All but one of Ceredigion’s 51 community council areas will change, many dramatically.

Only Llanwenog Community Council will stay as it is after the next election, with councillor reductions, minor boundary changes, and council mergers to be introduced elsewhere across the county leading to the loss of 180 councillors.

In July, Aberystwyth Town Council said it will write to the Welsh Government urging them to reconsider the sweeping changes to town and community councils in Ceredigion.

Town councillors raised concerns on the potential impact on smaller community councils and the Welsh language.

Welsh language campaigners Cymdeithas yr Iaith have now warned that these changes “could put the Welsh language at risk as a community language”, because councils that currently operate through the medium of Welsh are being merged with councils that do not.

Dr Jeff Smith, Chair of the Ceredigion Region of Cymdeithas yr Iaith, said: “We are extremely concerned that these changes would put Welsh at risk, not only as the language of meetings and the work of many community councils, but as a community language.

“The use of Welsh as the language of politics and administration has a major influence on people’s decisions to use Welsh, because that is where

“Welsh is accepted as an official language, a language of importance, a language of everyday life.

“If we lose councils that discuss and work through the medium of Welsh, the language will lose status, dignity and ground.”

There were more than 200 responses to the Democracy and Boundary Commission’s consultation, and a large proportion of the town and community councils opposed the proposals.

Since then, community and town councils have corresponded with the Minister responsible for Local Government, Siân Gwenllian, and Ceredigion Council.

Dr Jeff Smith added: “We have called on the Minister responsible for Local Government, Siân Gwenllian, to reverse the changes, and some of the community councils have tried to put forward solutions.

“But we feel the need to bring everyone together to jointly decide on the next steps to resist this undemocratic decision, which puts the Welsh language at further risk in the county.”

After accepting the recommendations with slight tweaks following a consultation, Welsh Ministers made the official order earlier this year to bring in the changes in time for the local council elections to be held in May next year.

Original proposals had the county losing more than 250 of its town and community councillors, but the accepted final proposals scaled back the councillor losses.

The meeting, ‘Resisting the Changes to Ceredigion’s Community and Town Councils’, will be held on Tuesday, 8 September, at Llwyncelyn Hall at 7pm.