Three motions aim to halt Flintshire Catholic schools proposals
The Liberal Democrats will launch a three-pronged attack on the handling of the Catholic schools reorganisation by Flintshire County Council’s Cabinet this week.
At the meeting of full council on Wednesday Cllr Andrew Parkhurst – leader of the Lib Dem group – and Cllr David Coggins Cogan will sponsor three separate notices of motion aimed at what they call ‘stopping the schools closure stitch-up’.
It comes after Cabinet elected to progress with plans to close four Catholic schools in the county and replace them with a £55 million Catholic super-school in Flint for pupils aged 3-18 – despite a public consultation showing 96% of people were against the plans.
Appeals to freeze the process and reconsider all options were rejected following a call-in of the scheme. The proposals would see the closure of three Catholic primary schools – St David’s in Mold, St Anthony’s in Saltney and St Mary’s in Flint- plus St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School.
Now the Lib Dems have put forward a handful of motions urging the council to force Cabinet to rethink its approach to the scheme and to shine a light on the consultation process.
In the first notice – titled ‘Transparency in Public Consultations’ – Cllr Coggins Cogan will ask the council to adopt the following wording in every future public consultation:
“The council is asking for your views, but you should be aware that it may seemingly disregard the outcome, even if an overwhelming majority of respondents take a particular view. This consultation is not a referendum.
“Past consultations have shown that strong public opposition or support for a proposal does not prevent the council from proceeding with its own preferred option.”
According to Cllr Coggins Cogan, that choice of wording reflects the outcomes of recent consultations – including the Catholic schools proposals.
“Recent consultations have produced overwhelming levels of public opposition or support for particular options,” he said. “Yet final decisions have not always reflected the balance of those views.
“This disparity risks creating the public perception that consultation exercises are conducted to justify pre-determined outcomes rather than to inform decision making (i.e; a tick-box exercise).”
Cllr Coggins Cogan is also the proposer of the second motion – backed by Cllr Parkhurst – seeking to make councillors more engaged with the decisions they make.
In it he asks Flintshire County Council to ‘end the school visit hypocrisy’ – which he characterises as councillors refusing to visit the schools earmarked for closure while encouraging members to visit schools that have already been modernised.
“The Cabinet Member for Education has refused invitations to visit the schools proposed for closure despite repeated invitations from governors, staff, parents, action groups and concerned parishioners,” he said.
“The Leader of the Council meanwhile has proposed organising a council-funded coach trip for councillors to visit the new Ysgol Gymraeg Croes Atti in Flint as part of promoting the case for a new build, even though Croes Atti is a Welsh medium primary school, not a Catholic 3–18 through school and therefore not an accurate model of what is proposed.
“The most directly comparable school to the proposed Catholic 3–18 through school is the £23 million Christ the Word in Denbighshire, a 3–16 Catholic through school that has been in Estyn’s statutory follow up category of special measures since an inspection in May 2022.”
This second motion calls for a stop to the council-funded visit to Ysgol Croes Atti, to contact Christ the Word and Denbighshire County Council to arrange a visit to the Rhyl Catholic through school and to make it a requirement that Cabinet members visit any school they propose to close in-person before moving into a statutory objection period.
The final motion of the three will be tabled by Cllr Parkhurst and seconded by Cllr Coggins Cogan. This will demand council immediately requests Cabinet withdraw its statutory notice opening the objection period into the super-school plans and notifies Welsh Government.
“Continuing with the statutory objection period despite such overwhelming opposition undermines confidence in the consultation process and the Council’s stated commitment to listening to residents,” said Cllr Parkhurst.
Flintshire County Council will debate the motions at full council on Wednesday, December 3.
By Alec Doyle – Local Democracy Reporter
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