A town council in south Wales wants to "opt out" of Welsh
I'm a little upset by this story. Basically, the town council of Aberdaugleddau (Milford Haven) in Pembrokeshire in south Wales have drawn up plans to go against the law, as posited by the Welsh Language Act 1993, and not automatically provide both Welsh and English versions of council documents, just English ones. Their argument is that it costs too much, given that there are supposedly not many Welsh speakers in Aberdaugleddau. They are apparently providing a caveat that anyone can ask for a Welsh translation if they want to.
Partly it is on a matter of principle that I object to this. The 1993 Act states that Welsh and English are to be treated on an equal basis in local government, and the Aberdaugleddau council are attempting to subvert this by making English the de facto language, taking precedence over Welsh. It's incorrigible, IMO, and arguments of financial savings such a scheme would cause is, I agree with one of those interviewed in the report, a smokescreen. There are lots of people who are, I suspect, immigrants from outside of Wales who have gone to live in Aberdaugleddau, have obtained a seat in local government, and are now trying to undermine the Welsh language. Unacceptable. Reducing the prominence of Welsh in a region like Pembrokeshire will lead directly to a reduction in the number of people who speak it or learn it, and if a local council does not prove an authoritative role model in this, then it bodes ill. It's also frightening that, according to the chairman of the Pembrokeshire Association of Local Councils, other councils in south-west Wales are starting to think this way as well.
What irks me most about this, though, is the ongoing assumption in general that Welsh is in decline in south Wales. Actually, the last national census (2001) showed a marked increase in the number of people living in south-west Wales who could speak Welsh since the previous census in 1991. You want stats? In Pembrokeshire in 1991, 18.3% of the population noted that they were Welsh speakers. By 2001 that figure (answering the question "are you able to speak Welsh?") had risen to 21.8%, a rise of 3.4%. That means that in 2001 there were 23,967 people living in that county who could speak Welsh. I hardly see 21.8% of a small county's population as reflecting a shortage of Welsh speakers. For comparison, Pembrokeshire in 2001 therefore had a higher proportion of Welsh speakers than Bridgend, Rhondda, Merthyr, Caerphilly, Newport and Cardiff, though a lower proportion than anywhere in the north.
For Aberdaugleddau itself, the figures are lower, but not by much. 12% of the population can speak Welsh (2001), and among young people the proportion is much higher: 36% of 5 to 9-year olds, 42% of 10 to 14-year olds, 37.1% of 15-year olds and 16.2% of 16 to 19-year olds. Certainly, the figures for older people are lower (only 5.7% of 25 to 39-year olds spoke Welsh in 2001), but bear in mind that seven years have passed since those results, and the speakers who were kids then are now working adults. Say that 37.1% of 22-year olds living in Aberdaugleddau now are Welsh speakers. To discount them because a handful of town councilmen have no truck with the indigenous language is bad form.
(Source for census results here and here.)
Partly it is on a matter of principle that I object to this. The 1993 Act states that Welsh and English are to be treated on an equal basis in local government, and the Aberdaugleddau council are attempting to subvert this by making English the de facto language, taking precedence over Welsh. It's incorrigible, IMO, and arguments of financial savings such a scheme would cause is, I agree with one of those interviewed in the report, a smokescreen. There are lots of people who are, I suspect, immigrants from outside of Wales who have gone to live in Aberdaugleddau, have obtained a seat in local government, and are now trying to undermine the Welsh language. Unacceptable. Reducing the prominence of Welsh in a region like Pembrokeshire will lead directly to a reduction in the number of people who speak it or learn it, and if a local council does not prove an authoritative role model in this, then it bodes ill. It's also frightening that, according to the chairman of the Pembrokeshire Association of Local Councils, other councils in south-west Wales are starting to think this way as well.
What irks me most about this, though, is the ongoing assumption in general that Welsh is in decline in south Wales. Actually, the last national census (2001) showed a marked increase in the number of people living in south-west Wales who could speak Welsh since the previous census in 1991. You want stats? In Pembrokeshire in 1991, 18.3% of the population noted that they were Welsh speakers. By 2001 that figure (answering the question "are you able to speak Welsh?") had risen to 21.8%, a rise of 3.4%. That means that in 2001 there were 23,967 people living in that county who could speak Welsh. I hardly see 21.8% of a small county's population as reflecting a shortage of Welsh speakers. For comparison, Pembrokeshire in 2001 therefore had a higher proportion of Welsh speakers than Bridgend, Rhondda, Merthyr, Caerphilly, Newport and Cardiff, though a lower proportion than anywhere in the north.
For Aberdaugleddau itself, the figures are lower, but not by much. 12% of the population can speak Welsh (2001), and among young people the proportion is much higher: 36% of 5 to 9-year olds, 42% of 10 to 14-year olds, 37.1% of 15-year olds and 16.2% of 16 to 19-year olds. Certainly, the figures for older people are lower (only 5.7% of 25 to 39-year olds spoke Welsh in 2001), but bear in mind that seven years have passed since those results, and the speakers who were kids then are now working adults. Say that 37.1% of 22-year olds living in Aberdaugleddau now are Welsh speakers. To discount them because a handful of town councilmen have no truck with the indigenous language is bad form.
(Source for census results here and here.)