Agenda and minutes

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Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

To receive apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from the Executive Director Economy and Environment, the Executive Director, People and Organisational Development and the Strategic Lead for Education.

 

2.

Declarations of Interest

To receive any declarations of interest from Members relating to items to be considered on the agenda.

Minutes:

County Councillor Rosemarie Harris declared an interest in the item on Llanbedr Church in Wales school as a governor of a school that could potentially receive pupils from Llanbedr Church in Wales School.

3.

Llanbedr Church in Wales School pdf icon PDF 463 KB

To consider a report by County Councillor Phyl Davies, Portfolio Holder for Education and Property.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

County Councillor Rosemarie Harris left the meeting during consideration of this item having declared an interest. The Deputy Leader, County Councillor Aled Davies, took the chair for this item.

 

Cabinet considered the results of the consultation to close Llanbedr Church in Wales School from the 31st August 2022, with pupils to attend their nearest alternative schools.

 

113 respondents had completed the consultation response form and in addition, 62 written responses were received from respondents by e-mail or post. The written responses also included an online and paper petition to ‘Save Our School Llanbedr CIW is under threat of closure and we need your help!’, which received 2,119 signatures. The issues raised in the written responses to the consultation and those raised in the consultation meetings were listed in the Consultation Report  along with the Council’s response to those issues.

 

County Councillor Pete Roberts presented the observations of the Learning and Skills Scrutiny Committee as set out in the appendix to the report circulated to Cabinet. The main issues were on the availability of Church in Wales places, financial implications, the new curriculum and Welsh Medium education. The Committee had felt on balance that there were more arguments in favour of retaining the school despite a number of arguments to support the proposed closure. The Deputy Leader noted that there were no recommendations from the Scrutiny Committee.

 

County Councillor John Morris spoke as the local member. He expressed disappointment that a video from the school was not being shared with the Cabinet and was advised that this was on the grounds of data protection. He was also disappointed that the Cabinet had not visited the school. He argued that there should be an area review for the Crickhowell cluster rather than a piecemeal approach. He contended that the cost per pupil would fall as the number of pupils increased in 54 in January and that recently developed new schools under the transformation policy were showing a higher cost per pupil than Llanbedr. He did not accept that school could not deliver the new curriculum as it was leading the cluster on its implementation. He said that there were no grounds for closure on education standards. Finally, he raised the issue of the distance pupils would have to travel to the nearest faith schools.

 

Officers accepted that the closest Church in Wales school at Llangattock did not have capacity to take all of the pupils. If parents wished pupils to continue a faith based education, the Council would use its discretionary powers under the Travel Wales measure to provide free transport to other Church in Wales schools. On pupil numbers, it was noted that the projected figures quoted by Councillor Morris included children in pre-school which, to be consistent with the approach taken in previous cases, were not counted in the total.

 

On the point made about delivering the new curriculum, officers advised that they were not saying that it could not be delivered in a small school but that it would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Delegated Decisions pdf icon PDF 235 KB

To note the delegated decisions taken by Portfolio Holders.

Minutes:

Cabinet noted the delegated decisions taken by Portfolio Holders.

5.

Exempt Items

The Monitoring Officer has determined that category  3 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules applies to the following items. His view on the public interest test (having taken account of the provisions of Rule 14.8 of the Council's Access to Information Rules) was that to make this information public would disclose information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

 

These factors in his view outweigh the public interest in disclosing this information. Members are asked to consider these factors when determining the public interest test, which they must decide when considering excluding the public from this part of the meeting.

 

Minutes:

The next item was being deferred and therefore there was no reason to pass the motion to exclude the public.

6.

Approval of a payment to Heart of Wales Property Services to meet the Council's obligations

To consider the confidential report.

Minutes:

This item was deferred.