CHURCH education in Pembrokeshire, the birthplace of Wales’s Patron Saint, is under threat from a series of actions by the council which could amount to religious discrimination, the Church in Wales has said.

The Church in Wales has issued a formal notice that it will take legal action against Pembrokeshire County Council if it presses ahead with plans to remove church status from Cilgerran Voluntary Controlled Primary School.

Back in May, the council voted to remove the Voluntary Controlled status of the Welsh-speaking rural school and to establish it as a 3-11 community school despite 97 per cent of the responses to a consultation about its potential discontinuation opposing it.

That consultation followed a review which “considered the extent of surplus school places in the area, set against a significant decline in the pupil population,” the council has previously said.

Hundreds opposed the proposed changes, with a petition on the council’s own website gaining 391 signatures.

During the consultation, 203 responses were received; 97 per cent (197 responses) against the proposal, with just 1.5 per cent (three) in favour.

Earlier this year, councillors heard from vice-chair of the school governors Gary Fieldhouse who said the loss of the Church in Wales status would be “a profound mistake,” the school’s association with the church “not symbolic but fundamental”.

Reverend John Cecil had told councillors the proposals were “fundamentally flawed,” with the school’s land legally in trust as a Church of Wales school, and change “essentially creating a new school with no premises to occupy”.

A letter has now been sent to council officers on behalf of the Diocese of St Davids and the Church in Wales saying that, if the council persists with this course, the Church will take legal action on the grounds of claims of “public misrepresentation and unqualified legal assertions made by Pembrokeshire County Council officers,” and “discrimination against faith schooling”.

The letter also says that, if the council removes VC status from the school, the Church will not make the site available for a successor school, which it says will render “the case on which the proposed removal of VC status is based untenable”.

The legal warning follows Pembrokeshire County Council’s decision earlier this month to close Manorbier Church in Wales Voluntary Controlled School, which was damaged by a fire in 2022.

The church says that despite repeated assurances from Cabinet Members and senior officers that it would be rebuilt, it has been allowed to sit empty while the number of children, forced for years to learn in temporary accommodation, has declined.

A spokesperson for the Church in Wales said: “Pembrokeshire County Council’s behaviour in the case of Manorbier VC School has been utterly unconscionable.

“The council has presided over a catalogue of delay, incompetence and broken promises resulting in the literal destruction of a thriving school which has served its community for more than 150 years.

“Taken together with the gratuitous attack on the church status of Ysgol Cilgerran, this amounts to a targeted assault on the inclusive Christian education which Church in Wales schools have provided to their communities for generations.

“That the council should be pursuing this potentially discriminatory action against Church schools in the county which is the cradle of Christianity in Wales, and which takes pride in being the birthplace and shrine of our nation’s Patron Saint, is a bitter irony.

“We are not prepared to allow it to happen, and we look to the county’s elected representatives to halt this destructive course of action.”

Pembrokeshire County Council has been contacted for a response.

A NEW town map has been installed in the heart of Fishguard to help residents and visitors discover more of what the area has to offer.

The map, created by Visit Fishguard & Goodwick’s in-house graphic designer, has been placed on the Abergwaun Hotel tunnel, near Offshore Surfwear’s new shop.

The group said it was “incredibly proud” of the finished result and thanked the building owner for allowing the map to be installed on the premises.

Visit Fishguard & Goodwick is now hoping to create a similar map for Goodwick and is asking for help from a centrally located building owner who may be willing to host it.

Anyone who can help, or knows of a suitable location, is being asked to get in touch with Visit Fishguard & Goodwick.

Organisers say popular charity events cannot safely go ahead without clear powers to control crowds

TENBY ROUND TABLE has announced that this summer’s Tenby Summer Spectacular events have been cancelled until further notice amid a dispute with Pembrokeshire County Council over crowd control at the harbour.

The events, which were due to take place on Sunday, August 16 and Sunday, August 30, have been a major feature of Tenby’s summer calendar for decades, drawing large crowds to the harbour for entertainment, food, drink and fireworks.

In a statement, Tenby Round Table said the decision had been made “with enormous sadness” and claimed it had been forced on organisers because of unresolved issues over the safe management of pedestrian access.

The organisation said it needed the council’s Public Realm department to use statutory powers to temporarily restrict pedestrian access through the event area when capacity is reached.

Organisers said the matter had first been raised with the council in September 2025 and again formally in writing in May 2026.

They said volunteers had attended meetings, commissioned professional health and safety consultants and worked on Event Management Plans, but claimed the council had still not provided a clear answer.

Tenby Round Table said: “PCC’s Public Realm department has had nine months to answer one question on safe and controlled access to the harbour. It has not done so.”

The group also alleged that recent written responses from the council contained factual inaccuracies and misleading statements about the relevant legislation.

It added that the council’s legal advice was understood to be provisional and still under internal review.

The cancellation is currently described as provisional, with organisers giving the council a final deadline of June 25 to provide what they describe as a clear, accurate and legally grounded answer.

Tenby Round Table said that if this is provided, it will do everything possible to reinstate the events.

The group said the Summer Spectacular had raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for local charities, sports teams, community groups and worthy individuals since it began.

It said the cancellation would be a devastating blow to those who benefit from the funds raised.

The statement added that organisers are still working with Dyfed-Powys Police and other relevant authorities ahead of a council licensing committee meeting in July, which is expected to consider whether the event licence should be renewed, amended or withdrawn.

The Herald has asked Pembrokeshire County Council for comment.