THE WELSH Language Commissioner has published an adjudication that Carmarthenshire County Council failed to prepare a satisfactory Language Impact Assessment before taking the decision to publish a Statutory Closure Notice for Welsh-Medium Ysgol Llansteffan. The Commissioner says in a letter to Cymdeithas yr Iaith who presented the complaint: “We have also received observations from the Council that their original Language Impact Assessment was insufficient”.
The Commissioner did not accept the first part of Cymdeithas’ complaint that there was insufficient capacity in the other Welsh-medium schools in the Carmarthen Town area, and that some pupils would be forced out of Welsh-medium education, as it is not within the power of the Commissioner to research data for school places, but she adjudicated that the original language assessment did not deal “conscientiously” with the impact of closing the school on the community of Llansteffan.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith had complained that it was “unreasonable” to claim that the impact of closing the most important Welsh-medium institution in the community would be “neutral”, and that this would run counter to attempts to revive rural Welsh-speaking communities.
However the Commissioner adjudicated that the Council had failed to adhere to Language Standards 88, 89 & 90 which assess the impact of policies on the Welsh Language.
The Commissioner says that the Council had revised its Language Impact Assessment in response to the inquiry, and that the Commissioner has no statutory right to overturn the decision itself to close the school, merely to ensure that the Council conforms with language standards in the future. However the Commissioner emphasises that conscientious consideration of the negative impact of the proposal to close the school should have been taken from the start of the process.
In her adjudication she said: “To comply with the standards, it is essential that consideration of Welsh language effects forms an integral part of the policy-making process from the outset, rather than being separate from the decision itself or addressed at the end of the process.”
She added that the Flow Chart outlining the process should include a clause that the effect of closure on the Welsh language should be considered from the start of the process.
On behalf of Cymdeithas yr Iaith in Carmarthenshire, Ffred Ffransis commented: “The simple truth of the matter is that the Cabinet of Carmarthenshire County Council in November 2025 took the decision to issue a Statutory Closure Notice for Ysgol Llansteffan based on a defective Language Impact Assessment, and the fact that they took later steps to amend and mitigate does not compensate for the harm done by this injustice on the pupils and the local community.
“We have already been informed that one young family have put their house on the market to move to an area which has a school. We shall be drawing the attention of the Chief Executive Officer, Wendy Walters, to the lack of a strategic approach across departments.
“There is an application to build affordable homes in the village, but attempts to revive the community by attracting young families are being undermined by the closure of the school by another Council department.”
