We are not 'misinformed' (Carmarthen Journal)

Carmarthen Journal - 09/04/08

Here we go again. Carmarthenshire Council's education spokesman, Ieuan Jones, is again complaining in your letters column that everyone is "misinformed" - if not plain stupid because they won't agree with the Independents that it's a brilliant idea to close down all our village schools.

He says that other councils are also facing up to the challenges and names Gwynedd.

Gwynedd Council has just revised its consultation timetable in order to give people a fair chance to put forward their views. It has also postponed for a year a major restructuring as the Assembly Government is working on exciting new proposals as to how schools can co-operate with each other as an alternative to closures.

Any chance that the Independent councillors in Carmarthenshire will start listening to people and to positive alternatives in the same way? No chance at all.

If re-elected, they are determined to press ahead with the tired old policy of closing schools and centralising everything. It's easier for bureaucrats to control fewer, larger schools - never mind about the education and the local communities.

Obviously funds can't come from elsewhere to save the schools, because so much money is needed for the wages of the top officers.

Councillor Jones rightly says that Carmarthenshire Council has won awards from bureaucrats across Wales. They admire the breathtaking arrogance of Carmarthenshire Council in steamrollering their own policies through without the inconvenience of anything but the absolute statutory minimum of consultation - and they still expect to get re-elected.

Councillor Jones and his gang of Independents at County Hall are surely running the risk in this election that voters are not quite as "misinformed" as he thinks they are.

Ffred Ffransis

Llanfihangel-ar-Arth