‘20 schools on Powys closure hitlist’

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Plans to close 20 schools in Powys were “an aspiration by a previous administration” that does not bind the current council leadership, a meeting has heard.

A meeting of Powys County Council’s Economy, Residents and Communities scrutiny committee on Monday looked at the authority’s performance report for the second quarter of the 2022/23 financial year, up to the end of September.

Councillors’ eyes had been drawn to a red or “off track” measure for education, and that: “By March 2025, we will reduce the number of primary schools in the county by 20 schools.”

The report explained that this was due to only one school being closed over the summer – when the target had been two.

Cllr Karl Lewis said: “The report shows that there’s 20 primary schools that are lined up for closure. Is that a finger in the air sort of number or have officers identified those 20 primary schools.

“If so, could we have a confidential briefing at some point to talk about those 20 schools.”

Committee chairman, Cllr Angela Davies, thought the committee was straying into the territory covered by the Learning and Skills scrutiny committee.

Cllr Lewis said: “I would like to scrutinise if possible, I would like the detail around those 20 schools.”

Interim director of corporate services Emma Palmer, explained that the report goes to all scrutiny committees and that the Learning and Skills committee would “draw out” what is relevant for them to discuss.

Earlier in the meeting, Cllr Adrian Jones brought up the measure on schools and that he was “surprised” that the new cabinet had not changed it yet.

Council leader Cllr James Gibson-Watt said: “We are still looking back and measuring performance against the previous administration’s corporate improvement plan. This figure of 20 schools by 2025 was in the plan and (was) their intention.

“The current administration is committed to continuing the transformation process, but we’ve found out that closing schools is a long and complex process and they don’t necessarily go to plan or time-scale.

“Things have changed and we’re doing things differently, closing 20 schools by a certain date seemed a rather rash promise to make. It was an aspiration by a previous administration that doesn’t bind us in any way.”

Ms Palmer explained that the focus of work with the new cabinet was to formulate their “stronger, greener fairer, corporate plan” while a “light touch” is now given to the former administration’s Vision 2025 plan.

Ms Palmer said: “This first year is always a bit frustrating in that transition from one plan to another – this is an honest position of where we are at against that (Vision 2025) original intention.”

The performance report will go on to be agreed at a meeting of the cabinet.