Consultation on plans to close school

CARDIFF council will ask people for their views on plans to close a primary school in Llanrumney.

The council’s cabinet has approved a consultation on closing Glan-yrAfon Primary as part of measures to reduce a 20% surplus of primary school places in the area currently going unfilled.

Parents have started a campaign to save the school, which would be closed in August 2019 if the plans go ahead, with its pupils going to other nearby schools.

Sarah Hawkey, whose nine-year-old son Joshua attends Glan-yr-Afon, and 12-year-old daughter Jessica left the school last year, claimed parents are not being listened to.

Speaking after the cabinet meeting, she said: “The education is amazing [at the school]. My little boy has special needs and they’ve brought his education on leaps and bounds.

“A lot of parents are so angry with it. They are disgusted.”

Councillor Sarah Merry, deputy leader of the council, told Thursday evening’s meeting the final decision on the school closure would only be taken after the consultation and further reports to cabinet.

She said: “Glan-yr-Afon is running at 48% – the school is nearly half empty. It has a poor condition building and it’s got a deficit of £130,000.

“What we want is for every child to have the best quality education and best quality schools that we can.

“We want to do it economically so more money is spent on education for the children rather than buildings we may not necessarily need in the area.”

Cardiff council says Glan-Yr-Afon has almost half of its 292 places available, and if it closes there would be more than enough primary school places in Llanrumney even after taking into account predicted population growth.

Councillor Huw Thomas, leader of the council, said: “Cardiff is growing. But that growth is not necessarily growing evenly across the city.”

Llanrumney is served by other primary schools including Bryn Hafod, Pen-y-Bryn, St Cadoc’s Catholic and St Mellons CiW English-medium Primary Schools and Ysgol Gymraeg Bro Eirwg.

There are 1,342 English-medium primary school places in Llanrumney, but in January 2017, the number of pupils enrolled was 1,073 – a surplus of 269 places.

Councillor Merry, who is also the cabinet member for education, added: “I’m confident we can meet additional demand in the area at the remaining primary schools even if it meant increasing the size of those primary schools.”

Conservative leader on the council, Adrian Robson, encouraged parents to get involved in the consultation process.

“I accept it’s not even growth (in Cardiff) but that has to spread across the city and reach areas such as Llanrumney at some point,” he said.