Controversial: School shake-up plans were met with protests

FOLLOWING the Council’s decision to cease its consultation into the future of post-16 education in Haverfordwest, having also aborted its previous consultation, The Pembrokeshire Herald contacted the Welsh Government. We asked for information on its Schools Reorganisation Guidance and the extent of any difficulties local authorities had encountered in relation to it.

The Welsh Government refused to disclose the information requested. This was not on the basis that it did not have it, but on the principle that its publication would affect its role as the final arbiter of reorganisation proposals presented by Welsh local authorities.

Herald staff thereafter made a series of Freedom of Information Act requests to the other 21 Welsh local authorities to establish whether there was any pattern to the difficulties Pembrokeshire County Council has evidently encountered in both running the consultation properly and following the Welsh Government’s statutory guidance on its obligations.

Perhaps the guidance was just too complex for officers to follow. The results of our inquiry reveal that is not the case. We were surprised that a number of local authorities, notably Ceredigion, were able to respond to our queries not only well within the twenty-day limit but by return of email.

The Herald asked the following questions of individual councils:

· How many consultations has the Council carried out under the terms of the School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Act 2013?

· Has the Council discontinued or ceased any consultations once it has started?

· Has the Council received any legal challenge in respect of their proposals published under the terms of the Act and Code?

In relation to the first question, Councils (excluding Pembrokeshire) had held 85 consultations.

Only one other Council had discontinued or abandoned more than one consultation, Bridgend. Denbighshire also discontinued a consultation, having reassessed its business case.

Interestingly Bridgend Council has discontinued or abandoned three consultations. It pools its legal expertise with Pembrokeshire.

Three other Councils had received legal challenges, Bridgend, Denbighshire and Rhondda Cynon Taf.

Unless the position is markedly and significantly different at the sole remaining Council to respond, Pembrokeshire and Bridgend are alone in having to halt or abandon consultations once started. Pembrokeshire IS alone in having to halt what amounted to a re-run of a previous consultation on the same grounds as it had discontinued the original.

It appears that the complexity of the regulations is not such that the legal and institutional minds of other local authorities are bewildered and bewitched by them.

Jamie Adams is fond of pointing out Pembrokeshire’s exceptional status as an authority, a county, and a brand. Now something else has distinguished Pembrokeshire County Council from other Welsh local authorities.

The Council is yet to embark on a further consultation about the future of Haverfordwest’s secondary schools. Events appear, however, to indicate that there are going to be few surprises when it is announced.