Pembrokeshire County Council's education director met with Tenby Town Council this week, as part of the authority's preliminary consultation on primary and Welsh medium education in the town.

Mr. Graham Longster has already held meetings with parents, governors and staff of both Tenby Infants and Tenby Junior schools.

He told town councillors that the purpose of the consultation was to establish an agreed strategy to meet future needs, stating that both schools were good, but that there was an increasing demand for Welsh medium education.

There was now, explained Mr. Longster, an opportunity to access significant new capital investment from the national 21st century schools programme, which would ensure improved buildings for primary education.

He explained that the most likely options were either to keep the status quo or to establish separate English and Welsh medium primary schools on the existing sites.

At the meeting, Clr. Mrs. Caroline Thomas said that as part of any development that may take place in the future on the schools situated in Heywood Lane, she wished to see traffic problems addressed in that area, as it was an issue that had been a longstanding concern for councillors and local residents.

She also stated that she was fearful of the two schools losing their identity should changes be made to the current set-up, while her colleague, Clr. Mrs. Tish Rossiter, said she was more than happy to see the two schools remain as they are.

Mr. Longster told councillors that he believed that parents were entitled to give their children a choice of English or Welsh education, and with the number of families choosing Welsh language medium likely to grow in the near future, it was felt that at the moment those families were not being presented with an option.

"When we see growth in the Welsh medium in Pembrokeshire, it's something we can't ignore and have to respond to; it's the dynamic of education," he commented.

Clr. Paul Rapi said that his only concern was seeing pupils who would benefit from a Welsh language primary school, choosing not to continue their education in Tenby at Greenhill School and possibly electing to take secondary school education further away in the county in a school such as Preseli.

Mr. Longster explained that Welsh medium education was growing and flourishing all the time and that if the primary side of it were to grow, then the next stage would be to develop secondary Welsh education too in the area.

He said that there was not a viable number of pupils in the south of Pembrokeshire to look at secondary education in this respect at the moment, but that would not be the case in the future.

Clr. Mike Evans said that he saw these latest consultations as a chance to look at giving opportunities to future generations, and that the decisions made now would present new openings for the Welsh language medium growing in both primary and secondary schools in the area.

"The point of these preliminary consultations is that they act as an open attempt to get views that matter from consultees such as yourselves, and to determine whether we go for change or say, if it isn't broke, then don't fix it," Mr. Longster told councillors, adding that he would present a report to the county council's cabinet during the summer, with a further round of consultation possible in the autumn.