Pembrokeshire council may scrap plan to strip Ysgol Cilgerran of religious status
Council faces a pivotal vote on Ysgol Cilgerran’s voluntary‑controlled status after overwhelming public opposition and legal concerns.
Pembrokeshire County Council is set to consider abandoning a proposal to remove the voluntary‑controlled status of Welsh‑medium primary school Ysgol Cilgerran.
The council voted in May to discontinue the school’s Church in Wales affiliation despite a consultation that saw 97 per cent of respondents oppose the change.
The statutory consultation, opened in June, attracted 203 replies, of which 197 were against the proposal and only three in favour.
A separate petition on the council’s website gathered 391 signatures urging the plan be dropped.
Parents, teachers and pupils marched to County Hall in Haverfordwest for a protest at the council’s July meeting, brandishing handmade signs that read “You can’t fix what isn’t broken”, “Leave our VC status alone” and “Don’t take away our identity for a few £££”.
Council officers have been accused by the Church of “public misrepresentation and unqualified legal assertions” and of “discrimination against faith schooling”.
The Roman Catholic Church in Wales also appealed to the council to abandon the scheme.
Support for the council’s plan has come from Wales Humanists and the National Secular Society, which argue that the change would address surplus places in the area.
The council’s own review cited a significant decline in pupil numbers as the rationale for the proposal to re‑classify the school as a 3‑11 community school.
Legal experts warned that the school’s land is legally bound to its Church of Wales status, meaning that removing the designation would effectively create a new school with no premises to occupy.
In its statutory notice, the council recorded 91 formal objections, which will be presented to councillors on 15 October alongside a report recommending the plan be dropped.
The document also challenges the council’s ability to discontinue the existing school while continuing to occupy the site for a newly established community school.
Council officers concluded that it would be inappropriate to expose pupils, parents or staff to “that degree of uncertainty”.
Councillors now face three options: press ahead with the change, abandon it altogether, or overhaul the proposal and launch a fresh consultation.
The final decision, due on 15 October, will determine whether Ysgol Cilgerran retains its voluntary‑controlled status and its historic link to the Church in Wales.
Stakeholders on both sides of the debate will be watching closely, as the outcome could set a precedent for how faith‑based schools are treated amid shifting demographic pressures across Wales.