Transforming a primary school to Welsh medium to save it from closure was “always a nonstarter” a councillor has said.

Following an investigation, Powys County Council education department staff found that teaching children in Welsh at Llanfihangel Rhydithon Community Primary School is “not viable.”

The means that the planned closure of the school, also known as Dolau, which is between Llandrindod Wells Knighton and Presteigne, will go ahead on August 31, 2023.

At a meeting of the council’s Learning and Skills scrutiny committee on Wednesday, December 14, under fire education portfolio holder, Cllr Pete Roberts was forced to defend delaying the closure by a year, which the Liberal Democrat/Labour cabinet had agreed back in July.

Originally the previous Independent/Conservative administration had approved closing the school on August 31, 2022.

Cllr Roberts said: “There was need of detailed exploration of this to rule it out as an option.

“It was essential we undertook this piece of work before an opportunity was lost completely.

“So, I stand by the decision to explore this option in the East Radnorshire area.”

Conservative group leader Cllr Aled Davies said: “We discussed this issue some months ago and nothing has changed – the WESP (Welsh in Education Strategic Plan) clearly indicated this was the wrong location for such a school.

“The cabinet went against the advice of officers to run the consultation – the option appraisal came back with zero scores.

“It’s a difficult time for the community and it’s been put through another emotional wringer.”

He added that there are not enough Welsh speakers in this part of Powys to justify a Welsh medium school and that children would need to be “bussed in from elsewhere in the county” for it to work,

“It was a non-starter, a flight of fancy - there are serious concerns about what happened here,” said Cllr Davies.

Director of education, Lynette Lovell explained that the delay was inevitable due to a legal challenge to the school closure that the council had successfully defended.

This had meant that there was a lack of time to properly organise the closure this year.

Ms Lovell added that “for the sake of the children” it is better to move schools at the beginning of a school year rather than in the middle of it.

Earlier, schools transformation manager Marianne Evans said: “The conclusion we put forward is that it’s not viable to establish Welsh medium provision in Dolau, there are a number of reasons for that.

“It doesn’t meet the aspiration in the council’s WESP to develop Welsh medium provision in Powys’ main centres of population in order to stimulate demand.”

She added that a further concern was the school’s size and it would continue to be a “small school” with mixed age group classes.

The school has 36 pupils and Ms Evans explained that investment in more building would be needed to increase this figure.

Also “based on evidence” from other Powys schools, Ms Evans said it would be difficult to entice Welsh speaking teachers to Dolau.

The closure is expected to be rubber stamped at a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday, December 20.