Clwyd West AM Darren Millar has welcomed last week’s decision by the High Court to block Denbighshire County Council’s plans to close Ysgol Pentrecelyn.
In 2015, the Council announced plans to close the 56 pupil, Welsh-speaking village school, situated near Ruthin, and merge it with a larger bilingual school in the same area, Ysgol Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd, in a new building on a different site.
The plans were heavily criticised by campaigners fighting to keep the school open, who argued that the council's actions would damage the state of the Welsh language in the area and described the plans as "flawed and illogical".
In an historic judgement, made after after a two-day hearing in Mold last week, the council's plans were deemed "hopelessly confused."
Welcoming the decision, Darren, who made representations to the Council on behalf of campaigners against the merger, said:
“This is absolutely fantastic news for campaigners. It is the first time ever that a court has intervened to prevent a school closure due to a failure to assess its impact on the Welsh language properly and I would like to congratulate everyone who secured this result.
“It is clear that the decision making process was flawed and had it not been for the sheer determination of the parents, we would have lost yet more Welsh-medium village school provision in North Wales.
“The Council failed to take into account the language and community impact of the creation of a single-site school. We should be protecting our Welsh education for future generations and I hope that this historic judgement serves to influence Denbighshire County Council’s decisions regarding school closures in the future.”