A TREMADOG councillor has accused Gwynedd Council of acting unlawfully in its rural schools’ closure programme.

Cllr Alwyn Gruffydd claims that the Plaid Cymru-run Gwynedd Council has failed to employ robust and independent assessments to measure the long-term impact of school closures on the Welsh language.

He said: “This consideration should have been first and foremost in the minds of leading controllers and officials when deliberating school closures. But to their shame they failed to understand the consequences of their actions.”

In a landmark judgement last week the High Court severely reprimanded Denbighshire County Council for its flawed consultation process concerning the closure of two rural primary schools near Ruthin as local people were not informed about the ‘risk in terms of adverse language and community impact’. Judges deemed this has being ‘unlawful and unwise’.

“Although the circumstances aren’t exactly the same, these restrictions would have also been in force during similar consultations in Gwynedd. No thought has been given by Gwynedd Council to the viability of communities that are the mainstay of the Welsh language and the central role the rural school has in determining the future of the communities they serve,” added Cllr Gruffydd.

Gwynedd Council’s own Welsh Language Strategy aims for an increase of 5 per cent in the percentage of the county’s population that speak Welsh by 2021 with the Welsh Government also aiming to see a million Welsh language speakers by 2050.

Cllr Gruffydd: “Neither of these have the remotest chance of coming true without a concerted political, social and economic programme to safeguard and develop the rural Welsh speaking communities.

“The rural school is the heart of these communities as well as providing first-rate education – and value for money.”

A Gwynedd Council spokesperson said: “Our schools head teachers have identified that the greatest challenge facing the primary sector is the lack of sufficient time to lead and teachers in very small schools that have to teach a wide age-range and a wide range of student abilities in the same classroom.

“During the autumn term, we will continue the dialogue regarding leadership and education. Our aim by the end of this period, is to have a clear direction that will enable teachers to concentrate on education and raising pupils’ standards, and finding ways to lighten the burden of the management and administration of schools in order to give teachers the ability to concentrate mainly on teaching and securing better conditions so that headteachers can provide leadership.

“As well as this, we will continue to work tirelessly to promote the Welsh language in our schools, and in partnership with the Welsh Government we will offer leadership locally and to other counties in Wales in this vitally important area.”