Welsh authority hands school closure decisions to full council

Ceredigion County Council voted to use the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements)(Functions and Responsibilities)(Wales)(Amendment) Regulations 2013 for this purpose, which took effect on 22 October 2013.

They change a list of functions so that the responsibility to approve school organisation proposals can rest with the full council instead of being reserved to its executive.

A report from monitoring officer Claire Jones said: “The predecessor provisions in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 were, by default, executive functions.”

The move has been welcomed by campaigners against school closures who feel a more representative group of councillors will now be involved in deciding which schools close or merge.