The Church in Wales has threatened legal action against Pembrokeshire County Council over plans to remove church status from a primary school in what it says could amount to discrimination against faith education.
The Church has issued a formal notice warning it will sue the council if it proceeds with plans to remove the Voluntary Controlled (VC) status of Cilgerran Voluntary Controlled Primary School.
On 14th May, councillors voted to remove the school's church status despite 97% of consultation responses opposing the proposal. A legal letter sent on behalf of the Diocese of St Davids and the Church in Wales argues that the council's actions are based on "public misrepresentation and unqualified legal assertions" by council officers and amount to "discrimination against faith schooling".
The Church also says that, contrary to information presented to councillors, it would not make the school site available for a successor school if the VC status is removed. It argues this makes the council's case for removing the school's church status "untenable".
The dispute comes days after Pembrokeshire County Council voted on 15th June to close Manorbier Church in Wales Voluntary Controlled School, which was damaged by a fire in 2022.
According to the Church, the school was left empty despite repeated assurances from council leaders and officers that it would be rebuilt. During that time, pupils were educated in temporary accommodation and numbers declined.
A spokesperson for the Church in Wales said: “Pembrokeshire County Council’s behaviour in the case of Manorbier VC School has been utterly unconscionable. The Council has presided over a catalogue of delay, incompetence and broken promises resulting in the literal destruction of a thriving school which has served its community for more than 150 years.
“Taken together with the gratuitous attack on the church status of Ysgol Cilgerran, this amounts to a targeted assault on the inclusive Christian education which Church in Wales schools have provided to their communities for generations.
“That the council should be pursuing this potentially discriminatory action against Church schools in the county which is the cradle of Christianity in Wales, and which takes pride in being the birthplace and shrine of our nation’s Patron Saint, is a bitter irony. We are not prepared to allow it to happen and we look to the county’s elected representatives to halt this destructive course of action.”
Premier Christian News has approached Pembrokeshire County Council for comment.
