With the news that the future of Gladestry Church in Wales Primary School is being looked at, there is a feeling of déjà vu.

The details will be familiar to anyone who has followed the long-running debate around rural schools in Powys.

A small school. Falling pupil numbers. A consultation. And, ultimately, the possibility of closure.

The latest chapter in this sorry tale prompted me to look back at what was being said before the 2022 local government elections, when Powys voters were promised a different approach.

The Liberal Democrats, then in opposition, offered an alternative vision for running the county council - and rural schools were a key part of that message.

Ahead of the election, group leader Cllr James Gibson-Watt said the council’s schools transformation programme needed to be re-focused.

“I’m very unhappy that some major decisions were taken right at the end of the last council which will, to a degree, bind the hands of the next council,” he said.

“For me schools transformation should have been conducted on a cross-party basis.”

He said the party’s aim was “to find a way to keep as many schools as possible”, with schools working together through a clustering approach.

“Schools are the hearts of the communities and the impact on villages is very dramatic and negative when you close them,” he said.

The message was clear: if the Liberal Democrats took control, they intended to take a different approach to one of the most difficult issues facing rural Powys.

That message had been spelt out in black and white months before the election by Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds MS.

In a Facebook post in November 2021, while tagging the Llanbedr School Parents Group, she said: “If the Welsh Liberal Democrats were to take control of Powys Council next year, we would halt all rural school closures.”

Four years after the election, that commitment is facing a major test.

Since then, a number of rural schools have closed or are set to close.

Both Dolau and Llanbedr closed have closed since. Irfon Valley Community Primary School closed in 2024. The Cradoc campus of Ysgol Golwg Pen y Fan is closing earlier than planned following its merger with the Mount Street schools. Llandinam Primary School is due to close this summer.

And now Gladestry Primary finds itself facing similar difficult questions.

For the communities affected, these decisions are about far more than school buildings. Rural schools are often at the heart of villages - places where generations of children have been educated and where communities come together.

The council’s argument may be that circumstances have changed. Falling pupil numbers, rising costs and increasing pressure on council finances have left difficult decisions to be made.

That is a reality that cannot be ignored.

But neither can the words used before taking office.

This is the challenge of being in power. What is promised before an election is judged against the decisions made afterwards.