Councillors to consider holiday plans
Local authority councillors in Cardiff will spend two months deciding whether to change school holiday dates which could make holidays cheaper for families forced to pay peak season prices.
At a meeting of the full council last year - before the change in command after May’s election - Lib Dem councillors called for an investigation into changing school dates.
At the time concerns were raised that changing dates in Cardiff would impact families who either live or work in neighbouring authorities.
A consultation of school leaders was commissioned.
School leaders were asked: “Do you wish for the Council’s Cabinet to seek Welsh Government approval to change the school term-time dates to shorten the summer break in order to create an additional week’s holiday elsewhere during the school calendar?”
In it, 73% of school leaders said they supported the move.
The majority of the responses were jointly from headteachers and chair of governors, but others were from individual staff members.
The move could make holidays cheaper for families forced to pay peak high season prices.
The new head of the children and young people scrutiny committee, Councillor Lee Bridgeman, took the results to a meeting of the new Cabinet yesterday. He reiterated comments from the previous committee chair that the results were a surprise.
No opinion was given by education chief, councillor Sarah Merry, who thanked the committee for their report but gave no comments.
Conservative group leader Adrian Robson praised the committee which had prepared the report, but said he didn’t think anyone would “please everybody”.
The Cabinet said they would consider the findings of the scrutiny committee and return a decision about whether to approach the Welsh Government in September.
Also discussed at the meeting was the council’s financial position at the end of the last financial year.
Overall the council recorded a balanced budged in 2016-17.
There was however a £7.6m overspend including £6.7m in social services, £1.1m in city operations, £329,000 in corporate management and £178,000 in education.
The budget was balanced as those overspends were offset by underspends in other directorates and by a £4m contingency budget.