Welsh parents face having to send kids to school in England amid closure plans

Sam Rowlands, MS for Fflint Wrecsam, with parents Martina Crocombe, Julie Griffiths, and Kerry Hunt who are campaigning to save St Anthony’s Catholic School

A mother says she may be forced to send her children to school across the border in England if proposals to close a local primary go ahead.

Plans to shut four Catholic schools in Flintshire and replace them with a £55m single three to 18 school in Flint have angered local parents.

Martina Crocombe, whose children go to one of the four schools, St Anthony's Primary in Saltney, says this would leave her facing a 90-minute round trip to drop and pick up her children from school.

She's now considering a school nearer her home in Broughton but across the border in England. That means no Welsh lessons and no Wales curriculum.

Last month Flintshire County Council’s cabinet voted to push ahead with controversial plans to close St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School in Saltney, St David’s in Mold, St Mary’s in Flint, and St Richard Gwyn High School in Flint and build a new superschool for pupils aged three to 18 on the site of St Richard Gwyn.

St Anthony's Catholic Primary, Saltney

Martina, who has two daughters aged four and six at St Anthony's in the border town of Saltney, said if the plans go ahead she must consider sending them to the non-Catholic primary school a 10-minute drive across the border in the English village of Lache. That would be better than a 90-minute round trip to Flint.

"We want a local education for our children so we won't send them to a superschool in Flint," she said.

"It takes 45 minutes to get to Flint on a good day and that means all their extra-curricular activities would be out of the window and I don't want our children that far away. It would be a 90-minute round trip.

"I chose my local school for my children so it is nearby and they can walk.

"If we moved them to the school in Lache they would not learn Welsh and there is a different curricuum, which we don't want but is something we have to consider now."

She said St Anthony's is not in deficit and is a good school but fears have been raised about the costs of running smaller schools.

"My children are settled and doing well and the school is good. People choose local schools in their community so they can walk to school and don't have to be ferried."

Under the plans drawn up by Flintshire council and the Catholic Diocese of Wrexham the four primaries would shut by August 31, 2027. Children would eventually attend a new English-medium Catholic voluntary aided school for pupils aged three to 18, to be established from September 1, 2027.

The new superschool would run from the existing school sites until the new building is ready, which is expected to be September 2030.

Flintshire council said on its website that the proposal addresses "a number of challenges affecting Catholic education locally" and would support a sustainable, high-quality Catholic education offer in the future.

The plans would reduce surplus school places freeing up money for teaching and learning as well as improving the "learning environment" and strengthening the curriculum and further developng Welsh-medium education in a Catholic context.

Another parent campaigning against the changes said she has written a formal objection, laying out the concerns of many parents who object, to the Wrexham Catholic Diocese and Flintshire council.

"Unfortunately what has become increasingly apparent is that there seems to be one plan, one preferred outcome, and very little appetite to genuinely listen to the people these decisions affect," said Kerry Hunt, who has one child at St Anthony's.

"This is now the second consultation. At what point does public opposition become significant enough for you to stop and reconsider?

"How many consultations must take place before the voices of parents and residents are actually taken seriously?"

Sam Rowlands, MS for Fflint Wrecsam, said he is continuing to back oppose the plns to merge the four schools and replace them with a new superschool.

He said: “I really am amazed that yet again we are facing another battle to save schools when there is so much opposition. It is truly unbelievable to see a council totally ignoring the public’s views on these matters.

“There have already been two public consultations on this which showed overwhelming rejection to the proposals but councillors are just not listening to the people they represent.

“I am a firm believer in keeping schools local and I do not think merging four local schools into one superschool is the right way forward. St Anthony’s, for example, has been part of the Saltney community for over 150 years and provides education grounded in Christian values.

“I still remain vehemently against these plans and will back campaigners who are determined to keep on fighting these controversial plans.

“I am now urging everyone to once again make their feelings known and share their views on this controversial plan with the council by taking part in the consultation which closes on December 8."

People have until Tuesday, December 8 to register their views on the reorganisation here. The £55m school will be 85% funded by the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Communities for Learning fund.

The council will consider objections before a final decision.

In a separate consultation Flintshire council is looking at merging non-Catholic schools Saltney Ferry Primary and Wood Memorial Primary. Wood Memorial is on one half of the same site as St Anthony's.

Martina and Kerry believe those in charge of education had already decided that the St Anthony's site was needed to accommodate the merger.

A statutory notice for this plan has also been published with objections being taken until December 1. Details can be seen here

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