Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:27 pm on 13 July 2021.
Well, of course, I answer in my capacity as education Minister rather than as a local Member for Neath. I can say that Neath Port Talbot's full business case for the proposal of the school in Pontardawe has been postponed at present by the Welsh Government, and officials will meet with the authority next week to discuss their assessment of the impact on the Welsh language in more detail before pressing ahead further. It's important when local authorities consider proposals for planning for schools, for Welsh-medium provision or English-medium provision, that they continue to look at the broader picture. Neath Port Talbot council has noted Pontardawe as a linguistically sensitive area, so all possible steps must be taken by the authority to mitigate any detrimental impact that new proposals could have on the Welsh language.
In terms of impact on organisations and community hubs, the report that I publish today, the focus of that is the impact of COVID on Welsh language community groups and infrastructure specifically, so I would refer the Member to the content of that document.