IN a letter sent to all County Councillors: This as you will be well aware is not the first time I have written to the council over the issue of school closures, having contacted you all during the course of the consultation over the closure of YDS some months ago.

Once again this issue has been brought to bear on our community and once again the Council are progressing the subject without a full and proper consultation, and furthermore without providing substantial evidence or research to back up claims made in the consultation document. The fact that this potential outcome was never outlined during the previous consultation period is also alarming, with the previous consultation failing to make reference to this as an outcome how could any prior data be valid.

There are a number of reasons why Solva School should not be closed, ranging from the impact on the local community and damage to a thriving a popular local school, the impact on pupils and their access to extracurricular activities, the impact of travel on very young pupils and not to mention the environmental and financial costs associated. Closure of this school would deprive the area of educational provision that is neither Welsh medium or faith based, indeed these models of education are popular and there is no doubt a demand but the facts speak for themselves, Solva school is oversubscribed in some years, this demonstrates how essential if not vital this school is.

There is a demand here for a school in Solva, something I fear your consultation fails to take into account, given the broadness of its scope and the brief and generalised statements it makes.

There is no documentation or survey data to substantiate the claims that the school is in ‘poor condition or of its suitability.

As has already been seen following their Estyn at YDS, Solva School has come on leaps and bounds, proving the strength and calibre of the teaching, the quality of the staff and moreover the entire school well being and ethos on the whole. This is a happy school and in fact a school that is achieving better than its closest comparative partners i.e. Ysgol Bro Dewi, it has always been policy that a good school would not be closed, why then do we find ourselves at this stage.

This school has served as a central hub of the community and the wealth it brings is immeasurable, producing well known figures in the Arts i.e. David Gray and Meic Stevens and in the world of sport, Simon Davies and more recently Mikey Beckett. To lose this school would be a catastrophic result, tearing the very heart out of the community. It seems to be that Pembrokeshire County Council have no regard for the communities that this school serves, again our peninsula will lose a vital service in favour of centralising provision.

There is no doubt that the closure of this school in favour of a St David’s based education would drastically change the make-up of the village, with the loss of a local school the impact on the community is almost immeasurable. It would no doubt lead to a loss of a number of community events such as the Christmas tree lighting, harvest festival, school production, eisteddfod and a number of other events that would be lost to a site in St David’s, there would no longer be a necessity for the school to hold such functions in Solva losing a vital relationship with not only the church and other community organisations but also for youngsters who would no doubt be disconnected from the people in their village. The strong and cohesive community we have in Solva would be lost.

I would therefore submit to councillors that there are a number of questions that we need to answer before we can even begin to discuss any potential closure of Solva School. These include a thorough site evaluation both of the physical structure of the school and secondly with regard to the progress made following the last Estyn inspection, this school is already a Yellow banded school and I don’t doubt will achieve a green status when it is assessed in 2016.

Too much in the past we have seen community schools close in favour of centralised provision and many of you will know the impacts this has had on your districts over the years, losing the very makeup of your community. This school is oversubscribed, this school is delivering an education that is in demand in this peninsula, and this school is the best in its cluster, so why would you close it. As I said before I will say it again, it seems once again the people of this peninsula are being forgotten about, the cuts are hitting here harder than anywhere in Pembrokeshire.

It is this slow erosion of services like youth provision, mobile library, buses, hospital care, given how far we are from Withybush, coupled with the potential loss of roads at Newgale and policing that are making life at our end of the county more and more difficult.

To take away a choice in educational provision at one end of the county, at a time when you are seeking to broaden and improve choice at another, seems ludicrous!

I look forward to your response and I hope many of you will support us.

Joshua Phillips

Chair

Solva Community Council

Community Governor Solva School