Mark Isherwood
North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood is urging Denbighshire County Council to reject its proposal to close Ysgol Llanbedr, near Ruthin, at the end of August.
Mr Isherwood has sent a letter to Jackie Walley, the Head of Modernising Education at Denbighshire County Council, noting all the key objections made by the staff, parents and local councillors following his visit to the school on Friday.
He said:
“Ysgol Llanbedr is an excellent school at the heart of the local community. To close it would be a devastating loss to the whole community.”
Mr Isherwood’s letter highlights the fact that the school has 14/15 applications for September and is over subscribed for nursery places, despite the threat of closure, having the second highest number of nursery applications amongst the twelve Ruthin area Primary Schools.
“It also states: “It is understood that Ysgol Llanbedr is the only school threatened with closure following the Council’s Consultation on its Primary Schools in the Ruthin area, despite available data invalidating the grounds for this.
“Although four options were under consideration – close, federate, status quo or new build – I am advised that the Council looked first at closure.
“I am advised that parents, staff, governors and pupils want to be offered the same opportunities as those offered to schools such as Clocaenog. They seek to re-establish Ysgol Llanbedr at its current location and are willing to federate within an area school.”
Mr Isherwood also highlights the fact that the number of pupils resident in the village is growing and with Denbighshire’s Local Development Plan including 71 extra homes in Llanbedr, there will be a further demand on school places.
His letter states:
“Hyrwyddo Ysgolion Bach—Promoting Small Schools, found that village school closures are going ahead in the absence of sound cost information and that the available information suggests that school closures will result in little or no cost savings. The report was compiled by Cambridge Policy Consultants, whose brief was to review recent research on the cost of small Primary Schools and Primary School closures in Wales. The Welsh Government themselves have commissioned Cambridge Policy Consultants to produce reports for them. The report found “that no analysis or evidence base had been provided for the cost of small-school closures in Wales, or for the potential resulting cost saving. Closing every small school of 90 pupils or fewer in Wales would only save 2 per cent in the budget, which would be more than offset by the increased travelling costs to the new schools.”
He adds:
“Teachers, parents, pupils and communities themselves must be liberated to play a key role in deciding the future of their schools, especially when they say that the school is a lynchpin of their community.
“Ysgol Llanbedr is only asking to be given the same chances and opportunities that are being offered to the other Primary Schools in the area and it is clearly apparent that no decision should be reached until all the wider issues have been properly considered and resolved. I therefore urge you to reject its proposal to close the school at the end of August.”
