Three more Gwendraeth Valley village schools could close at the end of 2027, along with Ysgol Blaenau near Llandybie.
Ysgol Carwe, Ysgol Pontiets and Ysgol Bancffosfelen are all named in closure plans going before Carmarthenshire Council councillors on Tuesday, with 155 children across the four schools facing a move.
The council’s education scrutiny committee will be asked to back formal consultation on all four. Cabinet would make that call on 2 November.
It comes a day before full council takes the final vote on closing Ysgol Meidrim and Ysgol Y Fro in Llangyndeyrn.
Which Carmarthenshire schools could close, and where the pupils would go
Carway’s 58 pupils have been taught at Ysgol Gwynfryn in Pontyates for more than a year. The council wants to make that move permanent from 1 January 2028.
Their own building shut over safety fears in August 2025, and the council puts the cost of the work it needs at more than £2m over five years.
At Bancffosfelen, 48 pupils would move to Ysgol Pontyberem. The council says the school hall has been declared structurally unsafe and needs knocking down, after a 1960s classroom extension had already been taken out of use.
All teaching now happens in the original Victorian building, which the council says suffers persistent water coming in, damp and mould.
Pontiets’ 21 pupils would move to Ysgol Ponthenri, with nearly three-quarters of the school’s places empty, according to the council.
Ysgol Blaenau, near Llandybie, has 28 pupils, only four of whom live in its catchment, the council says. They would move to Ysgol Gymraeg Penygroes or Ysgol Llandybie.
Gwendraeth Valley village schools hit hardest
If they all go ahead, four of the six village schools facing closure in the county by the end of 2027 would be in the valley. Ysgol Y Fro in Llangyndeyrn is set to shut at Christmas if full council agrees on Wednesday.
Most of the children would stay in the valley, moving to Ysgol Gwynfryn, Ysgol Ponthenri or Ysgol Pontyberem.
The valley has been here before. Mynyddygarreg’s school was spared after its community campaigned for more than a year and gathered a petition of more than 1,000 signatures.
Pontyates has already fought to keep its GP surgery this year. Hywel Dda University Health Board dropped its plan to close Meddygfa’r Sarn in May after a four-month campaign, but campaigners now say no GP partnership has come forward to run it.
Blaenau and Pontiets have faced closure before
This is the second closure threat for Blaenau. In December 2021 the council put plans to close Blaenau and Mynyddygarreg on hold, with education cabinet member Glynog Davies calling for a fuller review first.
Pontiets was one of four rural primaries put under review last year, but its consultation was shelved while Carway’s future was unresolved.
What closing the four schools would save
The council says closing all four would save around £140,000 a year in running costs. Pontiets accounts for almost half of that, at £66,807.
Blaenau’s finances are the worst of the four: it ended 2025-26 £287,857 in deficit and is forecast to reach £362,556 this year, according to the council. Bancffosfelen is £62,924 in the red and heading for £107,773.
Carway and Pontiets were both in surplus in March, but the council expects both to slip into deficit this year.
It also points to building bills it would avoid, including £727,321 of work at Bancffosfelen and £310,802 at Blaenau over five years.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith says the plans are full of “errors”
Cymdeithas yr Iaith is urging all four schools to lobby scrutiny councillors before Tuesday to reject consultation.
The group’s Ffred Ffransis said: “By proposing to close four additional village schools even before the Council has made its decision on Meidrim, the Cabinet has shown that it is on a mission to close village schools throughout the county outside the towns and a few large villages.”
He said the officers’ “rushed work” had thrown up “numerous errors”, and that the Bancffosfelen document relies on an Estyn report from 2018 when the school was inspected again this year, with the report due next month.
The group also says promises to Carway and Bancffosfelen that money had been set aside for their buildings have been broken.
Ffransis added: “The future of our village schools and communities should not be taken so lightly.”
What happens at Tuesday’s scrutiny meeting
The committee meets at County Hall in Carmarthen at 10am on Tuesday 13 October.
If cabinet agrees on 2 November, a formal consultation would follow, with the closures taking effect on 31 December 2027.
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