School plans won’t go back to cabinet
CONTROVERSIAL school plans for Pontypridd will not face any further scrutiny after councillors voted not to send them back to cabinet, despite concerns over the consultation process.
The £37m proposals were called before the overview and scrutiny committee for a second time on Wednesday, but once again it voted not to refer them back to cabinet.
Cabinet approved the proposals in July after it considered objections to creating two 3-16 “super-schools” on the sites of Pontypridd High and Hawthorn High schools and creating a new Welsh-medium school at Heol y Celyn Primary School in Rhydyfelin.
This involves the closure of Pontypridd High, Hawthorn High, Hawthorn Primary, Cilfynydd Primary, Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Pont Sion Norton and Heol y Celyn Primary School as they are now.
It would also see sixth forms at Pontypridd High, Hawthorn High and Cardinal Newman closed, with pupils encouraged to attend Bryncelynnog or Coleg y Cymoedd in Nantgarw.
There were two reasons for the proposal being called before overview and scrutiny committee for the second time.
Councillors Mike Powell of the Liberal Democrats, Martin Fidler-Jones of Labour and Heledd Fychan of Plaid Cymru brought the first one forward.
Cllr Powell pointed to what the director of education said at cabinet about the council funding one too many comprehensive schools at the moment because there are 785 surplus places.
He said it could be costing as much as £4m a year.
Andrea Richards, head of 21st Century Schools at the council, said if no changes are made, there’ll be 785 surplus places in RCT by 2023 – but they are looking to reduce surplus capacity of schools to 10%.
Cllr Fidler-Jones questioned if the proposals had been scrutinised enough.
He said: “I am not convinced it has gone through the right amount of scrutiny it deserves. It’s our children’s futures. We need to get it right and get it right first time.”
Ms Richards said: “Scrutiny was engaged in the process and consultation was over and above the Schools Organisation Code. Each objection has been included as a valid objection and were given to cabinet.”
She said the meetings they organised were not a statutory requirement and no-one said they had difficulty submitting comments.
She also said the consultation period was extended from 42 days to 108 days.
Cllr Fychan said it is a “cause of great sadness” that they were back again to discuss this and said she felt the impact on low-income households and households without cars hadn’t been considered properly.
She also said more primary school pupils will have to travel further to school, particularly for extracurricular activities before or after school.
She said: “lt will mean more families will suffer from social deprivation. The council should’ve looked at current barriers to Welsh-medium education. There’s a need for a full and transparent assessment.”
Ms Richards said the new Welsh school in Rhydyfelin will be “fully accessible” and offer more opportunities and that they’ll work with governing bodies to encourage them to provide extracurricular activities.
Councillor Joy Rosser, cabinet member for education, said the council has an “excellent track record” in delivering the 21st Century Schools programme and is seen as an exemplar.
She said: “The current sixth forms in Pontypridd are not sustainable and the proposal deals with surplus places and provides more choice post-16. Full consideration was given to all responses.”
Ms Richards said 3,000 objections had been received during the consultation and 435 objections during the objection period itself, with more than 10,000 people engaged in the process.
Councillor Lyndon Walker, Independent, asked if the Glyncoch site had been considered as an alternative.
Ms Richards said there are future plans for the site, although nothing is on the table at the moment, but it wasn’t considered as part of this proposal.
Councillor Pauline Jarman, Plaid Cymru, said: “I’ve not seen any evidence at all that consideration has been given to some of the strong arguments against”, adding that she had not seen a copy of the objections.
But Councillor Jill Bonetto, Labour, said: “Clarity was provided in respect of pupil movements last time. Committee decided not to refer it back because of the level of detail received. I see no reason to do different.”