Closing rural schools in north Powys amid a pandemic and without face-to-face consultations is “totally unfair and undemocratic”.

At least nine schools with fewer than 50 pupils have been earmarked for closure by Powys County Council including Castle Caereinion, Churchstoke and Bro Cynllaith in Llansilin.

More than 30 people attended an outdoor meeting in Castle Caereinion on Thursday afternoon (August 12) to raise issues with Mid and West Wales MS Jane Dodds about the impact closing a school would have in their communities.

Concerns such as losing the Welsh language and culture if children move to schools across the border in England, children of all ages travelling long distances between homes and schools and climate change issues with extra bus travel. Fears were raised that local amenities could disappear as a result of shutting schools in rural communities.

In July, Powys Council announced that closing Castle Caereinion CiW School would go ahead with a statutory notice published next month.

At the meeting in Tynllan Farm, Hannah Eve Smith, a former pupil, asked: “The school has been the village for 130 years. How is it not viable?

“I cannot comprehend it. It doesn’t add up.”

Churchstoke CP School representatives told their local Lib Dem MS that schools must fact-check documents published by the council and push for meetings with Powys councillors.

“I find it quite disgusting that during the pandemic the children have had to go through this,” said a woman at the meeting. “They are now going to have a major upheaval. Their future, their health, their lives.

“Nobody at Powys (County Council) is considering that."

A public consultation has yet to begin for proposed plans to close Ysgol Bro Cynllaith in Llansilin.

Powys Council cabinet member for education Cllr Phyl Davies, Russell George MS and Craig Williams MP were invited to the meeting but did not attend.

However, Cllr Phyl Davies did later say that the council was not required to hold meetings as part of the consultation process.

He said that “difficult and significant decisions” needed to be made to deliver the council’s Strategy for Transforming Education in Powys 2020-2030.