A GENERATION of schoolchildren could be lost to Wales due to Powys council’s proposed school closures, a councillor has claimed.

Cllr James Gibson-Watt said plans to close four secondary schools as well as three village primary schools in Radnorshire were short-termist.

The Glasbury councillor revealed at a special meeting of Powys council how one local primary school has lost 10 pupils this year.

He told councillors parents along the border are, as critics predicted, taking their children out of Powys schools and sending them to schools in Herefordshire.

He said 10 pupils had left Clyro Church in Wales Primary School, which is in closure-threatened Gwernyfed High School’s catchment area. It is understood seven of the pupils have left for schools over the border and the others to the private sector.

The councillor, who won his seat in a by-election last year, said it was clear that parents along the border would look to England if Gwernyfed High School, in Three Cocks, was closed and replaced with a new school in Brecon.

"There’s now firm evidence of that," said the Liberal Democrat of the figures he supplied to the council.

"I spoke to pretty much every household during the Glasbury by-election and spoke to a lot of people with school age children and people who’ve children have left school and they all said they same thing, if Gwernyfed closes they would look to go to Lady Hawkins in Kington or Fairfield High in Peterchurch.

"They have absolutely no confidence a proper range of A level courses can be provided in Brecon by the college, it is not set up to do that."

Cllr Gibson-Watt said he hoped the figures would make councillors and council officers realise the warnings of pupils leaving for England are real.

He said: "One thing I’ve always said is this is just not understood at officer or member level. The Montgomeryshire members do not understand the local dynamics.

"I’ve spoke to the leader, Cllr Barry Thomas, about this and I think he understands it. He is more open minded about it than other cabinet members, they just don’t get what we’re talking about."

The councillor added the seemingly low numbers shouldn’t be ignored: "It is a sparsely populated area so we’re not talking thousands of pupils but hundreds lost to Wales and they will probably pursue careers outside Wales as a result."

He said the impact of school closures on communities needed to be understood and said he feared for Radnorshire where the council plans closing schools at Nantmel, Llanbister and Dolau.

"Some year seven groups are going to see children going in three different directions. From my area they could go to England, Brecon or Builth Wells.

"That will have a big impact on school age children and community cohesion and being without a school changes the nature of a village significantly.

"I question closing Nantmel, Dolau and Llanbister all at the same time, it makes it three times worse.

"There will be a huge area of north west Radnorshire without any public facilities.

"Short-termism is ruling the roost, it is going to change the whole make up of the communities and that is really sad."

Cllr Gibson-Watt said the council has promised to carry out community impact assessments of its closure plans but he said it’s not known how they will be conducted or what weight they will carry when decision are made on the future of the schools.

He also said he didn’t understand the council’s proposals for secondary schools with Gwernyfed listed for closure despite being the only one of the four schools not being monitored by inspectors Estyn. Brecon, Builth Wells and Llandrindod high schools are all in special measures.

The council also proposes removing the Welsh language stream from Brecon High School, despite the only Welsh medium primary in the area being based opposite it.

"It is an alternative reality," said Cllr Gibson-Watt: "So many illogical decisions seem to be taking place."

Powys council has said its plans are intended to address a falling number at secondary level.

It says creating larger schools, with plans to open new schools to replace Brecon and Gwernyfed and another replacing Builth and Llandrindod, will create a critical mass of pupils. As well as being more efficient the council says teaching will be strengthened by having larger staff numbers.

The council is also proposing removing Welsh medium education, at secondary level from Brecon, and centralising it at Builth Wells,.

It says pupils wishing to learn through Welsh are limited to subject choices due to a lack of sufficient pupils.

The council has also said it has taken the decision to close the primary schools in Radnorshire as pupil numbers have dropped to a level that the schools are more expensive to run than others in the county.

The NPTC College, which could run sixth form education in Brecon should the current high schools close, has said it can offer 25 A level courses in Brecon in line with the council’s plans.

Councillors will hold an EGM on June 16 which could strip the council’s cabinet of its power to decide the fate of closure threatened schools. Instead decisions would be made by the full 73-member council.