Vale council criticised for lack of transparency in rural school move

Llancarfan Primary School will soon move to Rhoose, despite a fierce campaign against the relocation.

Campaigners said the move effectively means the closure of the rural village school.

The new building will have enough space for 210 pupils, and 48 places in nursery.

Planning permission was granted in a meeting on Wednesday, September 2.

However. this information was not made public until two days later.

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The Vale council has now faced criticism for a perceived lack of transparency in the planning decision, and more widely since the coronavirus pandemic.

Public access to council meetings was protected in law by parliament in 1985, in an amendment to the Local Government Act.

That access stopped in March, as social distancing rules came in.

Councils now hold public meetings virtually, with video-conferencing apps like Microsoft Teams.

Several councils, like Cardiff, allow the public to watch meetings live, to witness how important decisions are made.

However, the Vale council is denying live access to the public and reporters, instead uploading recordings of meetings days, sometimes weeks, later.

One licensing hearing, about a controversial chippy selling booze late at night, was not made public for more than a month.

Vale-based South Wales Central MS Andrew RT Davies — who stood for election as a councillor on the Vale to campaign against the school move — criticised the decision and lack of transparency as “deeply regrettable.”

Cllr Davies said it was “clearly evidenced that Labour campaigned to save the school” while in opposition.

He claimed as the current administration is now “adamant” it wants to move the school to Rhoose, saving the Llancarfan school would need a “change of administration”.

He said: “The smell of power made them change their minds.

"What they promised in the Rhoose by-election, they soon ran away from.”

The former Tory leader in the Senedd also criticised the Vale council for denying reporters and the public live access to public meetings.

He said: “Other councils can stream meetings live, so I don’t see why the Vale council can’t.

"I fail to see why, in the open and democratic era we live in, journalists can’t sit in meetings live as if they were held in the Civic Offices.

“Cardiff has been holding full council over the course of the summer.

"The Vale is only holding its first full council on September 14.

"There hasn’t been the opportunity to have a full council meeting and scrutiny of what the executive is doing since March — which is not good for democracy.”

Cardiff Council has been holding public meetings virtually since May, broadcasting them live.

"Many other councils across the country have also adapted to new technology, broadcasting meetings live for months.

The Vale council said it is still trialling different platforms and “implementing new systems takes time”.

A council spokesman said: “In recent weeks, the council has adopted new technology to enable meetings to take place and recordings are uploaded to the website following their conclusion.

"The planning committee meeting referenced is now available to view.

“We appreciate there has sometimes been a delay in this happening and are in the process of trialling different platforms to make all public meetings accessible more quickly.

“Transparency and accountability have always been central to the function of the council and that firmly remains the case.

"A list of emergency powers used by the managing director while formal meetings were not taking place has been regularly updated on the council’s website.

“Like the rest of the world, the coronavirus pandemic suddenly changed the way in which we operate and sometimes implementing new systems takes time.”