LLANELLI MP Dame Nia Griffith is urging the new Plaid-led Welsh Government to ‘honour’ Labour’s £27m commitment for a new state-of-the-art school for Ysgol Heol Goffa.
Ms Griffith says delays and setbacks to the £35m project have caused ‘huge consternation and anxiety to current pupils and parents, and those waiting for a place at Ysgol Heol Goffa.’
She has written to Anna Brychan MS, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Welsh Language, calling on her to give ‘early and full support’ by committing to match-funding of 75 per cent for the school.
The previous Education Minister, Labour’s Lynn Neagle, had confirmed the planned new school would be eligible for the 75 per cent funding – the usual figure is 65 per cent – subject to a satisfactory business case.
School campaigners and Llanelli Labour county and town councillors have called for parents and the school community to receive a clear and categorical answer to whether the Plaid Welsh Government will meet the 75 per cent figure in full.
The demand comes just days after Plaid’s Carmarthenshire County Council Cabinet Member for Education, Councillor Glynog Davies, was questioned by opposition Labour County Group Leader Councillor Deryk Cundy asking whether the county council’s 25 per cent share – approximately £9 million – of funding had been ‘ring-fenced’ for the new Ysgol Heol Goffa.
Councillor Davies replied: ‘It hasn’t been, well not yet.’
The statement during a full meeting of Carmarthenshire County Council last week angered Labour councillors who have campaigned for years for the new school, putting it the top of their education priorities.
But in December last year Councillor Davies told a full county council meeting: ‘Yes, the money has been ring-fenced.’
Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Cundy said: ‘Which version of Glynog Davies’s answers are we, and the school community to believe?
‘Councillor Davies had skirted the issue of whether the current Plaid-led Welsh Government had put aside the £27 million for the much-needed 150-pupil capacity new school near Ysgol Penrhos in Llanelli.’
Councillor Davies had said the funding depended on the business case which had yet to be carried out.
Campaigners who fought a successful campaign against Plaid’s ‘broken promise’ to build a new school, said publicly after the meeting they feared there could be a £35 million ‘black hole’in the latest Plaid-led county council budget for Ysgol Heol Goffa.
Councillor Davies, who was Cabinet Member for Education when the county council scrapped the original plans for a new school in May 2024, took aim at prominent school campaigner, Lliiedi Labour councillor Shaun Greaney,, accusing him of ‘a constant state of outrage’.
He claimed the council was ‘moving ahead with a ‘larger new school.’ and said Llanelli Labour had caused ‘unnecessary distress’.
Town Councillor Greaney said: ‘It’s disgraceful that Councillor Glynog Davies should now be making out that is the hero of the school and has been wronged by our criticism.
‘More than 9,000 people signed a protest petition for a new school sparked by Plaid’s broken promises.
‘They know the truth. For councillor Davies to take umbrage when we reveal the money has not been set aside and protected for the school – an indisputable fact – reeks of political desperation.
‘Plaid are trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes and don’t like it that they’ve been caught out.
‘Llanelli Labour will continue to fight tooth and nail for the new school to be built as soon as possible for the long-suffering parents, children and staff of Ysgol Heol Goffa.’
Councillor Cundy said Plaid is ‘dragging its heels’ on the new school.
‘Seeing as Councillor Davies assured us in December the project was ring-fenced, why is it going to take 15 months to build a business case?
‘They had all the information last year from an independent report they commissioned that to meet legal requirements the school had to be expanded.
‘All we are doing as Labour councillors is being the voice of the vulnerable and we will not be silenced.’