Council Meeting - Schools and Hay Tump

Local businesses and groups are being asked to complete an impact assessment to say how they think the loss of Gwernyfed High School would affect them. Rob Golesworthy has approached several business owners in Hay, and was surprised to find that none of them thought it would make much difference to them at all. Rob was pretty sure that closure of the school would impact on his business, but it was very difficult to quantify that.
One of the arguments for keeping the school open (quite apart from its good academic standards) is that the lack of a local secondary school would make professional people less likely to want to re-locate in the area - for instance doctors - as they would be more likely to want to go somewhere they could ensure their children were educated without long distances to travel.

The Warren Trustees are thinking of opening up the area around Hay Tump, close to St Mary's Church, for more use. It was the original site of Hay Castle, before the present castle was built - and probably the site of an incident recounted by Gerald of Wales, when the Archbishop of Canterbury, recruiting for the Crusades, made a speech, which was so well recieved by the local men that they surged forward to take the Cross. Their wives tried to stop them, resulting in the men taking cover inside the castle from their womenfolk!
The Warren Trust are thinking about putting up an information board, and maybe picnic tables. The County Council actually owns the Tump, which may be Grade I listed. This is something the Cheesemarket group might be interested in helping with.

Fiona Howard is retiring for the second time as head teacher of Hay School. She will be leaving in July, and the councillors agreed she would be a hard act to follow.