The “clock is ticking” on whether or not a decision by Powys council’s ruling Liberal Democrat/Labour minority administration will be called-in for further scrutiny.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet on Tuesday, October 21, councillors received a report on the consultation which took place earlier this year on proposals to split Ysgol Calon Cymru’s Llandrindod Wells and Builth Wells campuses, which will eventually see a Welsh medium all-through primary and secondary school at the Builth site.

The Cabinet unanimously agreed to move to the next stage of the legal process of the phased split, but a further 28-day consultation will start next month to receive further comments and objections.

This is expected to be reported back to Cabinet in February ahead of a final decision being made.

The proposals have caused much unease amongst councillors and at last week’s meeting of the Learning and Skills committee which scrutinises education, the Chairman Cllr Gwynfor Thomas was urged to call-in the Calon Cymru proposal to be looked at again.

Following the Cabinet meeting, Cllr Thomas (Conservative – Llansantffraid) told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that his committee will be mulling over a call-in for the proposal.

Cllr Thomas said: “I had further discussions with (Education) officers yesterday to clarify detail which is unclear.

“The committee’s reaction to the answers given will decide if the decision needs to be called in and the clock is ticking.”

The committee has five days to decide whether or not to call-in the proposal.

Cllr Thomas spoke at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting to verbally give the committee’s recommendations to the proposal that they had discussed back in March.

Cllr Thomas) said: “It is interesting to finally see the responses to our recommendations – for us to provide real value to the system Cabinet has a responsibility to provide a response within the relevant time scale.”

The response should have been provided to the committee within two months.

Earlier this month the council agreed changes to the constitution which mean that the response to scrutiny recommendations need to be provided ahead of a decision being taken by the Cabinet – this will come into force from November.

Cllr Thomas said that the comments on the recommendation had only landed on his desk last Friday – well over six months after they had been crafted.

Cllr Thomas said: “That was disappointing as we had a Learning and Skills on Thursday (October 16).

“I would have liked the members to have seen the responses so that we could have added some additional value to that recommendation if there is need - and I think on this occasion, there is.”

He added that the concerns from his committee is that the proposal has not been “adjusted” following comments made during the consultation.

Council leader Cllr Jake Berriman (Liberal Democrat – Llandrindod North) said: “We’ve put matters in hand to resolve those procedural aspects going forward.”

If ultimately agreed, the uncoupling of Ysgol Calon Cymru will be done in two distinct phases, which is supposed to be completed by 2029.

The idea is to plug a gap in Welsh medium education provision at high school level in Mid-Powys and the council has said that they would invest in the infrastructure at the sites.