THE ROW over closing the smallest primary school in Powys rumbles on as senior Tory councillors slam the Liberal Democrat/Labour administration for a slow response to scrutiny committee concerns on the issue.
At a meeting Powys County Council’s Learning and Skills scrutiny committee on Thursday, March 21 ,councillors received a report which explained how the cabinet had responded to recommendations from the committee on the proposal to close Ysgol Bro Cynllainth in Llansilin near Oswestry.
This covered two committee meeting when the proposal was discussed, one was held in September last year and the second meeting was on February 12.
At cabinet meetings on February 18 and 21 the Liberal Democrat/Labour cabinet agreed to continue with the legal process of closing the school at the end of August.
Conservative group leader Cllr Aled Davies represents Llansilin and Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant said: “It’s really disappointing that the cabinet took that decision and we’re only seeing their responses now, it’s not good enough.”
Committee chairman, Conservative Cllr Gwynfor Thomas (Llansantffraid) said: “Portfolio holder (Cllr Pete Roberts) you said you didn’t want to respond because you didn’t want to pre-determine the consultation, do you still maintain that or is there another reason we didn’t receive the response?”
Education portfolio holder Liberal Democrat Cllr Peter Robers (Llandrindod South) answered: “I still maintain that.
“I took a conscious decision to supply the responses in the same time frame as others to the consultation that came back.”
Cllr Thomas said that not getting a response on the recommendations from the September meeting had made their deliberations in February “very difficult.”
In future he wanted to be warned ahead of meetings that responses to recommendations would not be available.
Cllr Roberts said he would: “take that on board.”
Cllr Davies then pointed out that when the cabinet had gone ahead to the next stage of the closure process and their report on did not include the “written responses” to their scrutiny recommendations.
“It’s simply not good enough,” stressed Cllr Davies.
Cllr Thomas said: “It’s really devaluing scrutiny.”
Cllr Thomas pointed out that the expectation that cabinet provide a response to scrutiny recommendations is enshrined in the council’s constitution.
Powys Independent Cllr Gareth E Jones (Llanelwedd) said: “Perhaps we should ask the monitoring officer (Clive Pinney) for his views, especially on the point that cabinet didn’t receive the responses before taking the decision.
Scrutiny and democratic support officer Katherine Flanagan-Jones told the committee that cabinet have a “two month or eight week” time frame to respond time to all scrutiny recommendations.
Director of education Dr Richard Jones said: “I will note the comments and take them back to the monitoring officer and to officers in the education service.
“The portfolio holder and I will also discuss the points you have raised.”
Cllr Thomas stressed: “It is a cabinet responsibility – that’s how the constitution reads.”
The recommendations from the scrutiny committee had focussed on two areas.
Firstly, that pupils moving from Bro Cynllaith to Ysgol Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant – could affect Llanrhaeadr’ s progression to eventually become a Welsh medium primary school.
Members of the committee also raised concerns over the council’s home to school transport policy at both meetings.
They believe that Powys might have to foot the bill to bus children from Llansilin to schools in and around Oswestry as they are closer than Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant.
