THE diocese of St Davids has given formal notice of intended legal proceedings against Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC) for its proposal to take away the faith status of Cilgerran Church in Wales Voluntary Controlled School and, after statutory notice for closure, to reopen as a community primary school.
The Church in Wales has described the council’s move as a “gratuitous attack” on the church status of Cilgerran, a Welsh-speaking rural school. Responding to a statutory consultation, 97 per cent of respondents opposed the change as entirely unnecessary.
The diocesan board of finance (DBF), through its solicitors, sent a letter to the council, warning that it would take legal action on the grounds of “public misrepresentation and unqualified legal assertions” made by its officers and discrimination against faith schooling.
It charged PCC with choosing to proceed with a consultation based on an error of law and further misinformation. The Council, it said, had “failed to understand that in closure of a VC school, the council has no right to reoccupy”.
It continued: “For absolute clarity, if the VC status is removed, the DBF will not agree to PCC occupying the premises (land owned by the DBF) for any purpose other than a Church in Wales Voluntary Controlled or Voluntary Aided school.”
The director for education, it said, was “intentionally” mistaken in telling officers that the site was for education, not just church education.
The letter expanded on the issue of misrepresentation, expressing deep concern that “senior officers, who are not legally qualified, continue to issue definitive public statements regarding complex property and trust law to decision-makers.”
PCC’s decision “strips faith-based education from a significant rural area, forcing families who value this ethos to look to the nearest alternative provision 23 miles away. It represents a severe unmitigated negative impact on the protected characteristic of religion and belief.”
PCC’s move at Cilgerran followed its decision on 15 June to close Manorbier Church in Wales Voluntary Controlled School, which was damaged by fire in 2022 and which, despite repeated assurances of rebuilding, has remained empty, while the number of children in temporary accommodation has declined.
The Church in Wales has described that behaviour as “unconscionable”. Without any consultation or involvement of the diocese, it says, PCC issued a press release earlier this week announcing that it had accepted an insurance settlement on the building.
Iwan Thomas, chief executive and diocesan secretary of St Davids, said that just two weeks ago, a national conference of all church-based-school practitioners, held at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, looked at opportunities for further innovation across Wales and commended the way in which schools were working in partnership with their local education authorities.
He said on Tuesday: “We’re feeling very robust about all this. This is not just about protecting the Church in Wales. It’s about protecting faith being part of an offer for our young people and our communities to choose their education.
“With these recent issues, it is about how councillors should be actually listening to their communities and for long-established schools within those communities to still be part of that overall choice.”