A Vale of Glamorgan councillor has blasted school funding in the county as a “catastrophic failure to adequately fund our schools”.
A Vale of Glamorgan councillor has blasted school funding in the county as a “catastrophic failure to adequately fund our schools”.
Cllr Christopher Franks, a Plaid Cymru member, continued: “Schools need adequate funds to deliver the curriculum.”
He also took aim at the highways budget, which he called “clearly, totally inadequate.”
He continued: “Our roads are falling to bits, small potholes become craters and whole sections of road are collapsing into disrepair.”
Later in the scrutiny committee meeting, he said: “I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me not to have any confidence in this budget and I fear, in a year’s time, we will be hearing excuses why the budget has failed.”
Vale councillors met to scrutinize the initial budget plan for the county before it goes for full approval.
Rob Thomas, chief executive of the council, replied: “We have to make difficult choices.”
Regarding schools' funding, the chief executive said: “A significant number [of schools] perform their duties within their budget.
“We have a minority [of schools] that are far in excess of their budget.”
He said there was a “massive discrepancy” across schools in the Vale, and they were “faced with being between a rock and hard place.”
Mr Thomas pointed out the pressures between Audit Wales monitoring how the council held schools to account, how robust they were in seeking recovery plans for schools, looking at the entire school budget and looking at individual schools that were in overspend.
He said: “Of course, we would like to spend more, we would like to spend more in our schools as well, but the cake is only a certain size and how you divide that cake up is always a challenge.”
For the 2026/27 year, initial plans for the budget show it as balanced and the chief executive said he had “every confidence” that the council would be able to deliver services within that budget.
He continued: “It will be challenging, it will be difficult and we will continue to work across the council, and work with our schools in particular to try to set realistic recovery plans in what is a very challenging time.”
The Vale of Glamorgan council will meet for a full meeting on March 9 to decide whether to approve the budget for 2026/2027.
The agenda for the February 11 scrutiny meeting reads: “Were the budget to be agreed, the public would see further investment in the public realm and a further £1m for schools.”
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