SCHOOL CLOSURES: Council confirms village schools in Meidrim and Llangyndeyrn to shut — but campaigners say they will fight on
Carmarthenshire County Council has confirmed it intends to close two more village schools, issuing the formal notices needed to shut them.
The council’s cabinet has agreed to issue statutory notices to discontinue Ysgol Meidrim and Ysgol Y Fro at Llangyndeyrn, with the notice period beginning in June.
The move had been widely expected. Both schools were placed under review last year and have been through a months-long consultation, but the decision marks the point at which the council formally commits to closing them, subject to any objections.
The consultation ran from 16 January to 2 March this year, taking in pupils, teachers, parents, governors and the wider community at both schools.
Both schools were identified for possible closure under the council’s Modernising Education Programme, signed off by cabinet in November 2024.
The council points to extremely low pupil numbers, high numbers of empty places, and budgets it says are unsustainable as the reasons for acting.
It also notes that many children living within each school’s catchment already attend other schools, and that pupil projections show little sign of numbers recovering.
Cllr Glynog Davies, the council’s cabinet member for education, said the decision had not been taken lightly.
“Today’s difficult decision to issue statutory notices to discontinue both Ysgol Meidrim and Ysgol Y Fro has not been taken lightly,” he said.
“However, significant financial pressures and low pupil numbers with a high surplus of places in both schools has forced cabinet to come to this conclusion.”
Both schools have faced wider scrutiny. Ysgol Y Fro, which had around 15 pupils, and Ysgol Meidrim, with about 31, were each placed in Special Measures by education watchdog Estyn.
The two schools were among four rural primaries put under review last year under the modernisation programme, alongside Ysgol Llansteffan and Ysgol Pontyates.
Ysgol Llansteffan has since been earmarked for closure through its own statutory notice, while Pontyates was kept out of the immediate process — though campaigners there have vowed their fight is not over.
The latest decision has drawn an immediate response from Welsh language campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith, which said it was surprised by the move.
The group argued the closures would undermine the new Welsh Government’s commitment to building rural resilience, and said an opportunity had been missed at Meidrim to work with governors on a plan to build a community hub alongside the school.
In the case of Ysgol Y Fro, Cymdeithas said the closure would again reduce capacity for Welsh-medium education in the Carmarthen area, which it warned could push families towards English-language schooling.
Ffred Ffransis, speaking for the group in the Carmarthen region, said Cymdeithas would work with the governors of both schools to gather objections to the statutory notices before final decisions are taken in the autumn, and called on the Welsh Government to intervene.
As campaigners signalled when the consultation was launched, Cymdeithas has questioned the way the council handled the earliest stage of the process.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
Welsh language campaigners prepare to fight ‘flawed’ Carmarthenshire school closures
Cymdeithas yr Iaith vowed to oppose the closures, criticising the council’s handling of the early consultation stage.
Four Carmarthenshire schools face closure under modernisation plans
The county’s Modernising Education Programme put four rural primaries under review over falling rolls and surplus places.
Rural schools under threat as council defends tough decisions
Carmarthenshire communities raised concerns over what campaigners called piecemeal closures.
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