A call for a breathing space before any decision is made on a Pembrokeshire village school at potential risk of closure, part of a wide-ranging range of education changes mooted in the county, was defeated at full council. One county councillor slammed the Local Authority’s latest ‘consultation’ on schools for the area, stating that in ythe case of Stepaside School - the very people that are expert at delivering education have had ‘no warning’ of this.

At Pembrokeshire County Council’s full council meeting of December 12, a recommendation before members asked that the Director of Education be authorised to undertake a public consultation on establishing a new 3-19 school, on a split site initially, but as part of a future investment to rebuild/extend Tenby’s Ysgol Greenhill site, or potentially on a new site.

As part of that it also recommended Tenby Church in Wales Voluntary Controlled School and Ysgol Greenhill are discontinued.

A second part of the series of recommendations was a call to establish a new 3-11 primary school on the Saundersfoot School site, discontinuing Saundersfoot School and Stepaside school”.

A report for members said there are 534 surplus places in the primary sector in the Tenby area, and 341 surplus places in the secondary sector in Greenhill School.

In the case of Tenby Church in Wales VC it says the school has a surplus capacity of 38.1 per cent in 2025, and over a 25 per cent level for at least four years.

For Ysgol Greenhill it says the 1,194-pupil-capacity school has 877 pupils as of 2025, 28.5 per cent surplus places.

In the case of Saundersfoot Community Primary School, which has a capacity of 280 places, it says numbers were down to 151 by 2025, creating a surplus of almost half its capacity, (49.2 per cent).

For Stepaside, it says: “By 2025, enrolment is projected at 107, creating 101 surplus places—over half of the school’s capacity (50.5 per cent).”

For the Tenby area proposals, an addition to the recommendation, by local member Cllr Sam Skyrme-Blackhall which included the consultation recognising the value of VC schools and secondary Welsh language education, was added, the recommendation overwhelmingly supported.

For the second part, local member to Stepaside, Cllr Alistair Cameron, backed by neighbouring councillor Alec Cormack, called for a deferral on any decision on its school, saying the school had only heard of the proposals officially a few days before.

Cllr Cormack said it was accepted the status quo could not be maintained, with pupil numbers falling “both due to second homes and retirees moving into the area,” adding the two schools of Saundersfoot and Stepaside were both well managed but were “just too small for the buildings we have them in,” with the possibility the school sites could be reduced in size “eliminating surplus space”.

He added: “Today’s proposal is to close the Kilgetty site to save money and then spend money bussing pupils to the Saundersfoot site. It’s only natural justice to give the school communities the chance of a fair hearing, there’s no reason to rush this decision today.”

Cllr Aled Thomas, the chair of the council’s schools working group described the call for a deferral as “a consultation to have a consultation,” saying the proposals “had been in the public domain for well over 12 months”.

“Members, of course, are going to fight for their communities but this is just a tactic pushing it further down the line.”

Cllr Cormack responded: “The school heard about this on Monday, the very people that are expert at delivering education have had no warning of this, I don’t understand why there is a need to press ahead so quickly, the communities deserve to be given more than three days’ notice of the proposal.”

Cabinet member for education Cllr Guy Woodham stressed there was no intention to hold any consultation prior to September 2026, giving “a lot of time for alternative proposals”.

Cllr Cameron’s amendment call for a deferral was defeated by 37 votes to 12 with one accidental abstention, members later hearing that was intended to be a vote against deferral.

The original proposal was later passed by 42 votes to seven.