Newport City Council Defies Reason and Logic – Claims Welsh Speakers Cannot Be Found To Provide Government Services

The Newport Council is claiming that “It would be impossible to deliver telephone services equally in Welsh and English”. Under the headline “Newport Council Can’t Provide Service In Welsh”, the website “SouthWalesArgus” is reporting that the Authority issued this statement in response to the Welsh Language Commissioner’s investigation into the proposed standards for the provision of Welsh language services by local Council authorities.  This because not enough qualified Welsh speakers, as alleged in the Council statement, can be found to fill the positions required to deliver Wesh language services from the Council. 

The article describes the position of the Council as follows:  “The authority has said that a number of standards wouldn’t be reasonable or proportionate - including nine that cover how telephone calls are handled.  These include incoming calls must be dealt with in Welsh (and) outgoing calls must be conducted in Welsh where the language preference of the person concerned has been recorded that they want to receive calls.”   The council has also claimed inability to conduct “personal meetings” in Welsh and to provide simultaneous translation of public meetings.

According to the statistics published by the Welsh Government, the area covered by the local authority of Newport has a population of about 140,000 with 22%, or approximately 30,000 residents, claiming fluency in the Celtic tongue.  Newport is situated at the eastern edge of the Cardiff-Newport metropolitan area with a total population exceeding 1.1 million.  It is incomprehensible, therefore, that the Newport Council cannot find suitable staff to provide public services in Welsh.

As the impact of language legislation and full effect of the good work of Language Commissioner Meri Huws begins to be felt at the local level, this type of absurd argument from cash strapped local authorities will no doubt become common place.  Regardless of budgetary pressures, the official language of Wales needs to be honoured as such and Welsh speakers must not be discriminated against.  The action of the Newport Council violates the spirit of the Government's goals for the preservation of the Welsh language as outlined in this excerpt from the Language Strategy issued in 2012:

 " Support by the population of Wales for Welsh-language service provision is well evidenced. Over nine out of ten Welsh speakers (with a range of fluency levels) take the view that Welsh-language Service provision is important to keep the language alive. In particular, service users want to see an increase in the provision of face-to-face services available through the medium of Welsh. However, evidence shows that barriers to accessing services in Welsh remain. The main barriers include a lack of supply of services in Welsh by those bodies that are not operating Welsh language schemes, a low uptake of services due to lack of confidence among non-fluent Welsh speakers and a lack of awareness that services are provided in Welsh. “ (Welsh Government Language Strategy – 2012-2017)

http://www.estynllaw.org/uploads/s_a_living_language.pdf

http://m.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/11155552.Newport_council_can___t_pro...

https://statswales.wales.gov.uk/Catalogue/Welsh-Language/AnnualPopulatio...

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-18103982