New consultation on Pembrokeshire schools shake-up

Pembrokeshire County Hall

Pembrokeshire council has voted to restart its review of secondary education in the county.

The decision was made at a four-hour extraordinary meeting which some councillors described as a "shambles".

It comes a day after a second Haverfordwest secondary school, Sir Thomas Picton, was placed into special measures.

Tasker Milward school has been in special measures since July 2014.

In May, the council dropped plans to close the two schools and create a new 11-16 school, after protests over sixth form provision.

The cabinet member for education, Councillor Sue Perkins, had been facing a vote of no confidence at the meeting but was removed from her post yesterday.

The motion was then directed at the new cabinet member, Councillor David Lloyd, but he survived the no-confidence vote.

Councillors were meant to discuss a proposal to create a new 11-19 school in Haverfordwest, but the meeting took a new direction when council leader Jamie Adams instead proposed establishing a new sixth form strategy for the county.

The council has been consulting for more than a year on secondary education provision in Haverfordwest, St David's and Fishguard.

It has already been agreed that the secondary schools in St David's and Fishguard will send pupils aged over-16 to a new sixth form centre to be created at Pembrokeshire College in Haverfordwest.

But people in Haverfordwest protested against it, preferring instead to keep their individual school sixth forms.