Is education the victim of a wider planning problem?

The closure plans announced by Gwynedd CC of 29 rural schools comes as no surprise to those of us here in Powys facing up to similar issues. While we haven't seen a big bang approach I'm sure the numbers will come out in the same sort of ball park once all the decisions are made.

However before we all stand up and shoot the messenger its worth reflecting on the causes of the problem.

Back in the mid 90's Welsh Office planning guidance under Viceroy Redwood insisted on local councils creating hierarchies of settlements. Larger rural towns would see the bulk of the new housing with some of the smaller villages only expected to grow by a couple of properties every 5 years.

Now planning policy takes time to have an effect but we are beginning to see it now. While Crossgates, 8 miles east of Rhayader, has had about 40 new houses in the past 5 years, Llangurig the same distance the other way has only had half a dozen. Little surprise then that as Crossgates school has had a major building programme this summer Llangurig is now set to close.

But its not just schools that are under threat, the combination of limited housing stock, people retiring to the area and taking advantage of the relatively cheap housing prices, and lack of well paid jobs places the whole fabric of rural life on a knife edge.

So as we reflect on these closures it is worth all of us with planning responsibilities taking a close look at todays plans and ask ourselves what problems we are leaving for our successors in 15 years time

The education challenge

While the big education news here in mid Wales has been the threat to our smaller village schools very little has been said about the problems facing the larger urban schools.

Take my sons school three weeks ago we were told he would be in a shared year 3/4 class with rumour had it 32 pupils. Why was this you may ask well two teachers were leaving and the falling roll meant there wasn't enough cash to replace them.

Some serious letter writing and what do we find three days before the end of term but the cash has been found for a one year post with no guarantee beyond that date.

Call me cynical but that is the same timeframe as the review of the two nearby village schools the authority wants to close would complete.

So there we have it the stark choice Powys seem to be putting to us is keep the rural school open and push class sizes up in the towns or close a rural school and keep a teacher in the town.