In the recent meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC) the most recent suggestions regarding the reorganisation of Secondary Education in Mid and North Pembrokeshire were discussed before a decision was made to go, again, to Statutory Consultation.

At that meeting Cllr Jacob Williams indicated that he had been reliably informed that the Welsh Government would consider a Plan B.

Some hilarity followed when it became obvious that noone in the chamber could think of a Plan B.

On the understanding that a Plan B would be an alternative to PCC’s Plan A may I respectfully suggest a possible Plan B for consideration by all parties.

Develop a state of the art 11 to 19 school for Pembroke.

Develop a state of the are 11 to 19 school in Haverfordwest on the Sir Thomas Picton School site with a service road developed from the A40 roundabout. Allow the good people of St Davids and Fishguard their wish to have their sixth form pupils educated in Pembrokeshire College. Develop a Welsh medium Secondary School on the Tasker Milward School site adjacent to the present Welsh medium Primary School.

Readers may ask ‘What are the advantages of such a scheme over the one that is being proposed?’ In response I would suggest that the first and most important advantage is that it would be giving the pupils, teachers, governors and parents what they are so eager to achieve. Even Cllr David Lloyd would be able to retain his excitement at the prospect of the young people of St Davids being educated at the College.

Surely the desire of the Welsh Government for ‘transformational changes’ would be met and the 21st Century Schools Programme would be able to point to the substantially improved school buildings and facilities that is it brief.

The viability of an 11 to 19 school in our County Town is unquestionable and would rival and perhaps surpass that of all the other major towns in our county. There is no suggestion that the pupils of the north would be directed to the school as those communities are vociferous in their desire to have their young people educated only in the College. The College will then have a larger 6th Form cohort and possibly a greater chance to persuade pupils in Haverfordwest and its surrounding area that they would be better catered for in its establishment.

In adopting the Plan B that I suggest, PCC could point to the fact that it is adhering to two fundamental principles of democracy, namely ‘representing the wishes of the people it represents’ and allowing our young people the ‘freedom of choice’.

I hesitate to point to possible financial advantages as I do not know how much of the massive figure of 75 million pounds has already been accumulated or from which budgets money has been gleaned. Neither do I know how much will have to be borrowed to complete the total. However I cannot help feeling that if the 21st Century Schools Campaign restricts itself to its purpose of improving building stock, and the Welsh Government allows the people of Pembrokeshire to determine the future of education for its young people, then the need to lumber future generations with loan payments will be eliminated and money can begin to flow back into the budgets from which it has been taken over many years.

Who knows, the Welsh Government may have sufficient money left over from its promised 75 million pounds to be able to assist the Pembrokeshire College, ‘adopting front door’ tactics, in its creditable ambition to develop vocational training facilities in the south of our county.

Peter Lewis

Haverfordwest