MEIDRIM: Village school down to 24 pupils ahead of final vote on Christmas closure
Ysgol Meidrim is down to 24 pupils, and could close for good on 31 December if councillors back the plan next week.
Six children moved to Ysgol Bancyfelin or Ysgol Griffith Jones in September, according to Carmarthenshire Council. The school had 31 pupils at the end of the summer term.
On Monday the council’s cabinet voted unanimously to recommend closing it, with nobody against and no abstentions.
It also unanimously backed closing Ysgol Y Fro in Llangyndeyrn, which no longer has a single pupil. Full council has the final say on both on Wednesday 14 October.
Speaking in Welsh, local councillor Jean Lewis told cabinet the governing body had “worked tirelessly” to save the school. “For this community, this is not just a matter of closing a building,” she said, through the chamber’s interpreter.
She asked cabinet: “Is it really justified to close a Welsh rural school, which is at the heart of an entire village, for such a small financial saving?”
And she warned: “Once a school like this is closed, there’s no turning back the clock.”
Ysgol Meidrim, down to 24 pupils this term (Image: Google Maps)Ysgol Meidrim closure: 151 objections and nine in support
The closure notice in June drew 160 responses: 151 objections and nine in favour.
If the closure goes ahead, pupils would move to Ysgol Hafodwenog or Ysgol Griffith Jones from 1 January 2027, the council says.
Its case rests on numbers and money. The council says the school ended 2025-26 £62,581 in deficit and is forecast to be £123,968 in the red by next March.
It puts the cost per pupil at £6,363, against a county average of £5,479, and says closing the school would save £63,229 a year. The building could sell for around £150,000 if no community group takes it on.
Campaigners say the real saving is far smaller. Cymdeithas yr Iaith puts it at about £13,000 a year once extra transport costs are taken off, and Cllr Lewis told cabinet a lot of the costs “will go with the children to other schools”.
Meidrim governors’ rescue plan: “Closure is irreversible. Collaboration is not”
The school’s governors sent the council a detailed alternative in July, asking for “a defined period” to show it could work before “an irreversible decision” is taken.
Their plan includes a partnership between the council and the community, wider use of the building, childcare, and talks on federating with the Bancyfelin, Llangain and Llansteffan schools.
Their case to councillors came down to six words: “Closure is irreversible. Collaboration is not.”
They also point to new housing along the A40, saying Ysgol Bancyfelin is already at or above capacity and Meidrim’s spare places “may become an important strategic asset”.
Governors note the school came out of Estyn special measures in December 2025. They add that the judicial review earlier this year “did not halt the statutory process” but reinforced that alternatives to closure deserve “genuine and conscientious consideration”.
That legal challenge shaped Monday’s meeting. Education cabinet member Glynog Davies left the chamber for the Meidrim item, telling the meeting he had spoken for the council at the judicial review.
He stood aside on legal advice, and deputy leader Hazel Evans presented the report instead.
The governors’ plan did not change the council’s mind. It says the plan has no projected income and spending, cashflow forecasts or three-to-five-year budgets, and that federation would not fix falling numbers.
The council’s verdict: “No new evidence has been presented that would justify amending the proposal.”
Ysgol Y Fro in Llangyndeyrn has no pupils left
At Ysgol Y Fro, every pupil has applied for and accepted a place at another school, and no new starters are due, the council says.
Its closure notice drew 22 responses, all of them objections. The council ruled out one suggestion, turning it into a Church in Wales school, saying it would not fix pupil numbers, money or leadership.
Ysgol Y Fro ended 2025-26 £107,810 in deficit, according to the council, which says closing it would save £99,522 a year. Pupils would transfer to Ysgol y Dderwen.
Rural school closures in Carmarthenshire: what happens at full council on Wednesday
Both are designated rural schools, so the Welsh Government’s school organisation code presumes against closing them unless the council makes a strong case and has looked at every realistic alternative.
The council says it has done that. The vote comes as the county’s schools head for a £16m deficit that finance chiefs have warned could wipe out the council’s emergency reserve.
Meidrim and Y Fro were two of four rural primaries put under review last year, and campaigners say more are coming.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith says three village schools in the lower Gwendraeth Valley, including Bancffosfelen and Carway, and Ysgol Blaenau near Llandybie face proposals to close at the end of 2027. The council’s education scrutiny committee is due to consider consulting on them on Tuesday morning, the group says.
The group’s Ffred Ffransis said: “By proposing to close four additional village schools even before the Council has made its decision on Meidrim, the Cabinet has shown that it is on a mission to close village schools throughout the county outside the towns and a few large villages.”
Its message to councillors ahead of Wednesday’s vote is stark: “If Meidrim is to close, then 20 other Welsh-medium rural schools in Carmarthenshire are immediately under threat, and that will be the end of our Welsh-speaking rural communities.”
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SCHOOL CLOSURES: Council confirms village schools in Meidrim and Llangyndeyrn to shut, but campaigners say they will fight on
The closure notices issued in June.
CARMARTHENSHIRE: Schools’ £16m deficit could push council into the red
The county’s schools budget crisis, school by school.
CARWAY: Council weighing village school’s long-term future as £1.8m classrooms stay on hold
Carway’s children are still bussed to Pontyates, with formal proposals promised.
Four Carmarthenshire schools face closure under modernisation plans
Llansteffan, Y Fro, Meidrim and Pontiets put under review last year.
