A POLITICIAN has called for a meeting with the Centre of Alternative Technology's (CAT) leadership to discuss a number of concerns including job losses.

Cllr Elwyn Vaughan Powys County Councillor for nearby Glantwymyn believes that there are several concerns that CAT need to address on it's direction and relationship with the wider community.

Cllr Elwyn Vaughan said; “My attention has been drawn to a number of concerns in relation to the sense of direction of CAT, its future role and direction and its relationship with the wider community.

"Job losses have been made at the centre with long standing valuable members of the team losing their work.

"Despite interest by members of the staff to learn Welsh, and despite having Aberystwyth University as lead trainers in the area ready to assist, they were told that learning Welsh would be “too political.”

Cllr Vaughan continued: “All these aspects raise fundamental concerns about the future direction of the centre, its place within the local environment of Mid Wales which is a fully bilingual area, its sense of belonging and sense of place.

"If sustainability is to mean anything, it means more than purely narrow environmental elements but the communities, language and culture of where you are located."

CAT said that they welcome the opportunity to meet Cllr Vaughan and address the issues raised.

A spokeswoman for CAT, said: "As an employer of more than 80 people and as a centre that attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year, we are proud of the contribution that CAT makes to the local community and economy.

"CAT is part way through a period of growth and development, including expanding the number of courses we run and developing the activities we offer to visitors.

"As part of this, we have merged two teams to create a new ‘Engagement Team’ that will develop and deliver educational activities for schools and groups as well as advice, information and children’s activities for people visiting the Centre.

"This reorganisation has, regrettably, resulted in three roles being lost through redundancies.

"The reorganisation had the unanimous support of CAT’s Board of Trustees.

"Our new Engagement Team Manager has been making contact with local schools in recent weeks to talk about what we provide and how we can work with them more closely – this is, and will continue to be, a key part of CAT’s work.

"Many members of CAT staff speak or are learning Welsh and the organisation is supporting this by providing access to language classes or learning materials as needed.

"We are proud that, from our base in beautiful Mid Wales, we are taking our message and training on environmental solutions to people across Wales, the UK and beyond."