Carmarthenshire launches Welsh language promotion strategy

Pictured above are Carmarthenshire Council cabinet member for education and Welsh language Cllr Glynog Davies, former Welsh Language Commissioner and chair of the Carmarthenshire Welsh Language Strategic Forum Meri Huws and council leader Cllr Darren Price (Photo: Carmarthenshire Council)

Carmarthenshire Council's cabinet has approved its a new strategy to make Welsh the main language of the county.

The Welsh Language Promotion Strategy has been developed in collaboration with partners of the Welsh Strategic Forum in the county, and was launched at the Carmarthenshire Urdd Eisteddfod in Llandovery.

The strategy was launched during an event chaired by former Welsh Language Commissioner and chair of the Carmarthenshire Welsh Language Strategic Forum, Meri Huws.

The council said its aim, with partners, is to restore Welsh to a language spoken and used regularly by the majority of residents, and in all aspects of life.

The council says the vision is innovative and ambitious.

Carmarthenshire Council and partners want to see an increase in the proportion of the county that can speak Welsh and use their Welsh regularly.

The local authority wants to see the Welsh language as the 'norm' when working and operating in the county's public institutions and increasingly prevalent in businesses in the county.

It also wants young people to see a future for themselves in the county as part of prosperous Welsh communities, economically, culturally and socially.

The recently published 2021 population census results highlighted that Carmarthenshire experienced the highest percentage loss of Welsh speakers of all the counties of Wales, for the second decade running.

Recognising the alarming decline in the number of Welsh speakers within the county, and by working with its partners, the local authority said it is taking firm and confident action to stop this damaging trend and set out its plans at the strategy launch at the Urdd Eisteddfod in Llandovery.  

Cllr Glynog Davies, cabinet member for education and Welsh language said: “The use of the Welsh language and its continuation in Carmarthenshire is absolutely vital to the survival of Welsh language in Wales.  

“The decline in the number of Welsh speakers within our communities is a grave concern and an issue that we must address.  This strategy will be integral in our commitment to turn the tide in Carmarthenshire and, I believe, provide an example to the whole of Wales to follow.

“I would like to thank all partners of the council for their willingness to work together, through the county’s Welsh Language Strategic Forum, to develop the Welsh Language Promotion Strategy, for which the council has a statutory responsibility.

"It would not have been possible to introduce the Strategy without the full support of the forum and I look forward to another five-years of working together for the benefit of the Welsh language in Carmarthenshire."

He added: "I was very pleased to be able to launch the Welsh Language Promotion Strategy at the Carmarthenshire Urdd Eisteddfod.

"This was a youth festival, and the youth of today are the ones who will pass the language on to the next generation.

"It’s important therefore that we look confidently to the future to encourage confidence within Welsh speakers to use the language across all aspects of their lives.”