WELSH Government funding choices are forcing headteachers to make “difficult decisions” about the support they can provide to vulnerable pupils, opposition leaders have warned.

During First Minister’s Questions on Tuesday July 7, interim Welsh Labour leader Ken Skates called on Plaid Cymru’s First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth to avoid “abdicating responsibility for the most vulnerable children in Wales”.

Recent extra funding for additional learning needs (ALN) in England mean £340 million is available to Wales in consequential funding.

This is not ring-fenced – meaning the Welsh Government can use the extra cash as it sees fit.

Mr Skates noted Plaid Cymru’s 2024 acknowledgment that schools are forced to make difficult decisions about the support they can provide – quoting Mr ap Iorwerth as saying: “Wales can do better than this. Under Plaid Cymru, the pupils who need support will receive it.”

Mr Skates therefore called on the First Minister to reveal why not “a single extra penny” was allocated towards ALN in the supplementary budget, which was announced last month.

Describing creating a “sustainable” ALN framework as a “priority” for his government, Mr ap Iorwerth told the Labour leader that he is as “keen” as he is to work on ALN.

However, the First Minister also acknowledged the “tight constraints” within which his government must work, noting the “hundreds of millions of pounds of overspend” that his government “inherited from the last”.

Mr Skates called for the First Minister to avoid “abdicating responsibility for the most vulnerable children in Wales”.

In response, the First Minister said: “The problems that we face in ALN have been caused by 27 years of Labour education ministers. We want to work with this current group and anybody else to make sure that we build up sustainability for the future.

“The plans that we have in the supplementary budget stick with the previous government’s spending plans, whilst making allocations in areas I know the member’s party supports.

“I hope we can make positive progress on this, because we owe it to the people who are quite right in pointing out that we have a depth of problem in ALN in Wales and in England that deserves to be resolved. But it’s not going to be resolved by a one-off payment.”

It is not the first time the First Minister has faced questions over additional ALN funding, with the Welsh Conservatives and Reform UK raising the issue in previous sessions of First Minister’s Questions.

Mr Skates’ call for extra funding has echoed that of Caerphilly Council leader Jamie Pritchard and the local authority’s Labour group.

Cllr Pritchard said: “The Labour group on Caerphilly Council are calling on the Welsh Government to allocate consequential funding from the UK Labour Government to support children and young people with additional learning needs in Wales.

“There can be no raid on much needed additional learning needs provision.”

More than 3,500 school pupils across Caerphilly County Borough have ALN.

The council’s Labour group has said its “preparing in advance” for a Welsh Government U-turn.

Cllr Carol Andrews, Caerphilly Council’s cabinet member for education, said: “All of our schools have experienced increasing pressures in supporting learners with ALN. We feel that this funding consequential has to come to schools to the direct benefit of pupils with ALN.

“In addition to the specialist resource bases already approved by cabinet, we continue to experience significant growth in demand for ALN support. Should Welsh Government make additional this funding available, we already have plans of what will be done.”

Cllr Pritchard added: “I think the Welsh Government will be forced to U-Turn, and a U-Turn is no bad thing when it is the right thing to do.

“Our job as leaders of the 22 local authorities, is to ensure the voice of those local authorities are represented to Welsh Government. We are absolutely united in calling for the consequential funding to go straight to support our most vulnerable learners”.

The Welsh Local Government Association, which represents Wales’ 22 councils, has also expressed concern that funding for ALN support is not keeping up with the demand.

It says ALN costs are rising sharply, accounting for more than a quarter of all school budget pressures.

Councils say the growing complexity of need, alongside learner transport and workforce costs, is creating unsustainable financial strain.

According to a report by ITV Wales, the Welsh Government are in talks with Labour over ALN funding as it seeks support to pass its supplementary budget.

The Senedd is set to debate and vote on the budget on Tuesday July 14.

A CONSERVATIVE candidate has won the seven-way battle for a Pembroke Dock county council seat made vacant following the death of veteran councillor Brian Hall.

Before he passed away in April, Councillor Brian Hall had held the Pembroke Dock Market ward seat since 1996.

Following Cllr Hall’s death, Presiding Member of Pembrokeshire County Council, Cllr Simon Hancock said: “Brian was a larger-than-life character who was passionately devoted to Pembroke Dock and his constituents. He never let an opportunity pass without mentioning and advancing the interests of his hometown. We extend sincere condolences to his family.”

Since that seat became vacant, seven hopefuls put their names forward to represent the Market ward, with an election being held on July 9, the results announced this morning, July 10.

The election for the ward, which has an electorate of 1,442 voters, saw a 28 per cent turnout.

Winner was Welsh Conservatives candidate Jamie Street with 143 votes, approximately 36 per cent of all votes cast.

Second place, with 100 votes, went to Independent candidate Claire Francis-Boswell, who can be commiserated by recently becoming a town council member for the very same ward.

Other candidates, and their share of the votes, were: Chloe Louise Richards, Plaid Cymru, 79 votes; Ryan Morgan, Reform UK, 48; Paul Haywood Dowson, Independent, but listed as a member of Restore Britain since March of this year, 11; Lee Herring, Welsh Liberal Democrats, nine; Hayley Wood, Independent, seven.

Cllr Street’s win brings the total number of Conservative Group members on the council to 12, the largest individual political party group; the council also having an Independent Group of 18 members, 15 unaffiliated members, three Plaid Cymru, two Liberal Democrats, nine Labour members, and one Reform.

Cllr Street has been contacted for a statement on what he will bring to the Market Ward and Pembrokeshire’s council.

Back in 2022, the-then Cllr Dowson, representing Pembroke Dock Central as a UKIP councillor, was barred from holding any form of public office for the next three years after being found guilty of bullying, providing fabricated evidence to the Ombudsman and of misleading the public at a case tribunal convened by the president of the adjudication panel for Wales.

Mr Dowson more recently stood as an independent candidate in this year’s Senedd elections for the new Ceredigion Penfro constituency, gaining 88 votes out of a total of 89,402 votes cast.

His 11 votes for fifth place in the Market Ward contest amounted to some 2.77 per cent of votes cast, significantly higher than the 0.0984 per cent in the recent Senedd elections.

A CALL to extend a Pembrokeshire “boutique nature retreat destination” previously featured in the Sunday Times with further holiday cabins, a mobile sauna and padel courts has been lodged with county planners.

In an application submitted to Pembrokeshire County Council, Paul Cleaver of Wilder Retreats, through agent Hayston Developments & Planning Ltd, seeks permission for two holiday cabins, a mobile sauna and the conversion and extension of an existing building to padel courts and changing rooms to form phase 2 of the existing Wilder Retreats holiday cabins and complex, on land at the former agricultural/ forestry works depot, Solbury Road, Tiers Cross.

Padel is a racquet sport that combines elements of tennis and squash.

A supporting statement said of Wilder Retreats, an ecotourism destination located on 20 acres of rewilded land: “Since opening, the business has established itself as one of Wales’ leading boutique nature retreat destinations — demonstrating how sensitive, high-quality tourism development can work in harmony with landscape, ecology and local economy.

“The business has attracted national press coverage from publications including the Sunday Times and Coast Magazine.”

It said the existing business “was conceived from the outset as an ecotourism model — one that funds and enables genuine environmental restoration through sustainable commercial activity, working towards ecological targets set by Kite Ecology including native woodland planting, wildflower meadow creation and habitat corridor development”.

The Phase 2 developments proposed are: two additional A-frame cabins in addition to the existing six; Wilder Woodland Sauna, a commercial woodland sauna; and Wilder Padel Club, two covered LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) compliant padel courts with associated clubhouse facilities, that re-uses a redundant shed and yard in the client’s ownership.

The two additional A-frame cabins will be operated by Wilder Retreats Ltd as an extension of the existing accommodation business. Wilder Woodland Sauna and Wilder Padel Club will each operate as independent businesses under separate limited companies.

“Together, the three proposals reinforce one another: the cabins bring more guests to the site; the sauna and padel give those guests — and local residents — more reasons to visit and to stay longer,” the statement says, adding: “All three operate independently but collectively strengthen the economic, social and environmental case for this site as a model of sustainable rural tourism.”

The site was previously lawfully occupied by the applicant’s tree works consultancy and land management business until this subsequently relocated a few years ago.

Although the site has since been occupied by a motorcycle business, that business has been given notice to vacate but will trade until early 2027.

The application proposal is supported by a letter from Tennis Wales, the national governing body for Padel, one of the fastest growing sports in the country, which fully supports the principle of creating two padel courts, saying: “Creating more Padel courts, which can be used throughout the year, is critical to sustaining this growth.

“These new facilities will enable more adults and juniors to enjoy, compete and experience the game of Padel in line with Tennis Wales Vision and Mission which is to see ‘Padel opened up’.”

The application will be considered by county planners at a later date.