‘A RUNAWAY train that must be stopped!’ That was how reports proposing the possible closure of Llanfyllin High School were described at a public meeting held last week, where there was growing support for a radical alternative.
The leaked Powys Council draft report, whose four possible options included closure of Llanfyllin, replacing the school or its sixth form with a ‘centre of excellence’ elsewhere in the county, attracted 100 people to a meeting organised by Montgomeryshire Conservative spokesman, Glyn Davies.
It was Davies himself who had made public the leaked report and at the meeting in Llanfyllin’s Institute, it was his own radical alternative proposal to abolish the Local Education Authority, producing a saving of around £25million, which gained most support.
Discussing the leaked draft report, Llanfyllin’s county councillor Peter Lewis said: “This is an urban solution for a rural area and we must fight it. Officers must be scrutinised and know we are watching every move they make. This report is a runaway train. It needs to be stopped, put in the siding and sent back to the station.”
Glyn Davies said it was important to remain calm, but added: “Every single person present was passionately opposed to the closure of Llanfyllin High School, or to taking away its sixth form. County councillors will have to be stark staring bonkers to even think about such an idea, when they finally get to talk about it.”
At the meeting, Glyn Davies said although he was confident no councillor would vote to close the school, he was concerned the option of losing sixth forms to a centralised establishment in Newtown might be seen as a the ‘least worst’ solution.
No guarantees
“Loss of a sixth form changes the ethos of a school,” said Cllr Peter Lewis, “It takes away the adult layer who mentor the younger students and even then there is no guarantee they would travel to Newtown. Many would choose to go to Oswestry or Shrewsbury from here, as well as those who already come to us from those areas.”
Members of the public spoke of the potential impact on the local economy, with pupils and parents among the main users of local shops, but MP Lembit Opik said even this was too narrow a view, adding: “Many people only come to an area because of the presence of an excellent school with a good reputation.
“It also doesn’t take into account the environmental impact. It’s ironic. We have advertisements on television telling us to drive five miles less each week, not 60 miles more,” he added.
After the meeting, Glyn Davies said he was pleased with the tone of the meeting: “I had two objectives. Firstly, I wanted everyone to be in no doubt that the council is facing a real problem in sustaining the incredibly high quality secondary education that we have become accustomed to in Montgomeryshire, and secondly, I hoped the audience would unanimously decide that none of the current options/models are acceptable. They did and the message was ‘go away and think again’.”
Members of the public were encouraged to write to their councillors, supporting calls to look again at the proposed options and to maintain the sixth forms.
A group opposing the closures on social networking website Facebook has attracted more than 3,000 members.