The Welsh Government's Cabinet Secretary for Education has denied that a Ceredigion County Council chief received a “seal of approval” from the Government when drawing up proposals to close four of the county's rural Welsh schools.

During a long, tense meeting of the council’s Cabinet on 3 September, members voted to hold a statutory consultation on proposals to close Ysgol Llangwyryfon, Ysgol Craig-yr-Wylfa, Ysgol Llanfihangel-y-Creuddyn, and Ysgol Syr John Rhys in Ponterwyd despite widespread objections from parents, communities and campaign groups.

During the discussions preceding the vote, Barry Rees, Corporate Director of Ceredigion Council, who earns £120,500 annually, said that he had received assurances from the Welsh Government that the proposals within the consultations complied with the Welsh Government’s School Organisation Code.

The Code calls for the presumption of maintaining rural small schools, and that a local authority should only propose to close one “after considering all alternative options.”

Mr Rees told Cabinet members that council officers had a “period of contacting Welsh Government” when drafting the reports on the potential school closures to check “content and the process that was followed.”

“Both of those issues have had a seal of approval by Welsh Government,” he told members.

The line was repeated by the Chief Executive Eifion Evans later in the meeting, saying: “At the end of the day, Welsh Government has given us confirmation that what we are doing is correct.”

Shortly after the vote, Welsh language campaigners Cymdeithas yr Iaith sent a complaint to Lynne Neagle, the Welsh Government's Cabinet Secretary for Education over the local authority's compliance with the Code, as well as a freedom of information request to verify Mr Rees’ claim.

In their freedom of information request, they asked to see any correspondence or meeting notes between Ceredigion Council and the Welsh Government that might have given the council the impression that the Government approved their compliance with the Code.

The only relevant comment received back from the request was that an unnamed Welsh Government official said in an email to Barry Rees: “Please note that these are personal points and I cant [sic] make any legal comments; I've only been able to have a quick look but hope this helps.”

In a letter responding to Cymdeithas yr Iaith's complaint, Lynne Neagle said: "I am not sure what is behind the comments made at the local authority Cabinet meeting; however, I can confirm that the Welsh Government does not certify or approve any possible proposal to reorganise schools."

Ffred Ffransis, from Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s Education Group, said: “What was said by this officer is not a solid basis for the director to state to the Cabinet that the Welsh Government has approved their process of drawing up proposals to close the schools and, without this intervention and assurance, it is very possible that the majority of council members would not have been willing to start a formal consultation their closure."

Despite the criticism of the officer, the Education Secretary did not directly answer Cymdeithas yr Iaith's basic complaint that Ceredigion Council had broken the Code.

Ceredigion County Council argues that the low pupil numbers and surplus places at the four schools do not fit with its latest plan for school re-organisation.

Ceredigion County Council has vehemently denied the accusation.

A spokesperson said: "The council is extremely disappointed to read that the Cabinet Minister for Education stated that she was unaware of e-mails from WG officials confirming that Ceredigion has followed the correct process in relation to Section 1.8 of the School Organisation Code ‘Presumption against the closure of rural schools’. "During any process that has the potential to lead to closure of a facility, emotions run high and campaign groups such as Cymdeithas Yr Iaith see an opportunity to derail a legitimate process by making false and spurious claims and allegations against professional officers.

"The council will not respond to these false and misleading claims as it detracts from the key issues that are far more important to ensure a clear and transparent consultation exercise.

"However, we will defend our statements that were made in a public forum during the Cabinet meeting of 3 September 2024.

The council has then sent what it says is an exchange of emails between Ceredigion and Ruth Gittins a senior civil servant working in the Education Business Planning & Governance department directly under the Minister for Education Lynne Neagle on 7 June.

The chain reads:

Ceredigion Officer e-mail: ‘I should be grateful if you can confirm that the process we have followed and the content of the attached comply with the requirements of the School Organisation Code with regards the proposed closure of a school designated as a rural school.’

Response from Ruth Gittins WG: ‘You do need to satisfy yourselves with your legal team that you are complying with the Code. I can see that you are complying with Section 1.8 and making a proposal to the decision makers before going to consultation.’

A Ceredigion spokesperson added: "Constructive advice was received on where we needed to strengthen the document, e.g. further emphasising the extent of surplus places in the schools under consideration, and all comments were acted upon.

"The full email response was disclosed to Cymdeithas yr Iaith via a Freedom of Information request, but they chose not include this highly relevant information in their complaint to the Minister.

"This e-mail exchange provided the Corporate Director with the necessary information to confidently make the statement he made during the debate.

"The Chief Executive also invited any individual interested in the debate and the process to provide him with evidence if they believe officers have in any way misled Elected Members during the process.

"Not a single piece of evidence has been submitted despite the continued attempts of Cymdeithas yr Iaith and many others to discredit professional officers of the council.

"It is also worthy of note that the Cabinet meeting of 3 September had to be paused due to the unruly behaviour of a member of Cymdeithas yr Iaith.

"Furthermore, following a meeting with the new Minister for Education, she stated that Cymdeithas yr Iaith had mis-quoted the then Director of Education in relation to the presumption against closure of rural schools in their inaccurate Press Release of 25 September 2024.