Wrexham Council ‘Ready to Rise to Challenge’ & Increase Number Of Welsh Speakers Back To 2001 Levels

Wrexham Council have outlined ambitious plans to implement a five year statutory strategy to ‘facilitate and increase’ the number of Welsh speakers in the County Borough.

In a report due before Wrexham Council’s Executive Board on Tuesday it is stated that the Council are ‘ready to rise to the challenge’ and increase the number of Welsh speakers in Wrexham following a ‘decline’ locally in the language in recent years. We have been told the initial target is to ‘reverse the decline, then move forward to an increase’.

Details about the usage of the Welsh language are detailed within the report – showing a drop in the population who are able to speak Welsh from the 2001 census (18,102) to the 2011 census (16,659).

Based on 2011 Census figures the report notes that 33.2% of young people aged 10-14 in the County of Wrexham are able to speak Welsh.

Wrexham Council are aiming to increase the figure back to its 2001 level by the time to 2021 census is undertaken in five years time.

The report states: “The Welsh language in Wrexham has been in decline for some years. The Council is ready to rise to the challenge and is ambitious in its desire to achieve the outcomes outlined in the strategy.

“The Council is particularly keen to involve young people as well as non-Welsh speaking residents in order to create a better understating of the Welsh language and culture in the County Borough and develop a sense of ‘Welshness’ for the town and the area.”

To help increase the number of Welsh speakers, Wrexham Council say they will be ‘taking  a partnership approach with regard to the delivery of the strategy and will work with stakeholders to ensure that all interested parties are actively involved in ensuring it achieves its aims and objectives’.

This would involve providing both Welsh and non-Welsh speakers with opportunities to make their views known about the Welsh language and what actions can be taken to improve understanding and awareness of the Welsh language and culture.

The report also notes Wrexham Council has not received any additional funding from Welsh Government in order to implement the strategy. A figure of £103,000 is attributed to current spend on translation, with a further £250,000 allocated ‘to meet the anticipated costs associated with the implementation of the Welsh language Standards’.

There are a range of standards in place and being worked towards, with Tuesday’s focus on Standard 145 that reads:

“You must produce, and publish on your website, a 5-year strategy that sets out how you propose to promote the Welsh language and to facilitate the use of the Welsh language more widely in your area; and the strategy must include (amongst other matters) – (a) a target (in terms of the percentage of speakers in your area) for increasing or maintaining the number of Welsh speakers in your area by the end of the 5 year period concerned, and (b) a statement setting out how you intend to reach that target; and you must review the strategy and publish a revised version on your website within 5 years of publishing a strategy (or of publishing a revised strategy).“

Lead Member for Communities and Partnerships, Cllr Hugh Jones told us: “It is important to put this in context, Welsh is the oldest language spoken on these islands. It is inextricably linked with our culture and our heritage.

“It is through promoting culture and heritage that gives us an opportunity of keeping the language alive. I prefer the carrot than the stick in terms of how we promote and encourage the increased use of the Welsh language.”

He added: “The initial target is to reverse the decline in the use of Welsh language, and then move forward to increase the numbers.”

A Council Officer speaking of ‘making it exciting’ for learners offered a practical example on how Wrexham Council are taking steps to help provide an environment for learners: “For instance here at the Council we are enabling people to have their lunch with groups of Welsh speakers, we are trying to do it in a non-threatening informal way and we would like other work places to do similar things.

Back in November Cllr Jones made national headlines with a bold claim that Welsh was spoken 4th behind English, Polish and Portugeues in Wrexham (full story and our look at the data here) in terms of ‘language demand or take up’ during a meeting item on the standards.

Wrexham.com asked Cllr Jones if that was something he still believed, and with the current Welsh standard being required by law would the other mentioned languages see similar schemes.

Cllr Jones distanced himself from the comments saying the claim was “basically was generally what you hear in the town centre”, and stating he did not use the words ‘take up’, generalising the comments to “that was the sort of the general perception you got in the town centre”.

Cllr Jones was keen to move back to the topic of the standards implementation strategy, adding: “What is important is not to focus on that but to focus on the strategy, which is aimed at increasing the opportunities for people to speak and use Welsh throughout the County Borough.

“We are trying to set an example as a Council, so rather than focus on the current status it is important to focus on what we are trying to do, which is to stop the decline and reverse the flow.”

“I would like to get to a position where you walk through the centre of Wrexham you would hear Welsh spoken on a regular basis. Each language has its place, but Welsh being the oldest language in these islands and our national language has a very special and unique place and we have a duty and responsibility to promote it.”

Speaking on Wrexham.com’s second question on if there would be a desire to do similar for the other languages, he replied: “No. This is a statutory responsibility and a statutory duty. It is our national language and we have a duty to promote it.

“The fact Polish and Portuguese is used, and we welcome the diversity of the people we have in Wrexham and the contributions of those communities, but by the same token Welsh is our national language.

“We are happy to have people speaking Welsh with a Portuguese or Polish accent, we think that is progress. It is not a question of putting down Polish or Portuguese or any other language as I have said they are a welcome part of our diverse community. We would hope they embrace the culture of the Welsh language and the Welsh heritage.

“It is no different, if I went to Poland I would like to learn to speak Polish”

The report will go before Wrexham’s Council’s Executive Board on Tuesday 11 October at 10am. For those who cannot attend the meeting it will be webcast live and archived on the Wrexham Council website.