The saga over plans to close four rural primary schools in north Ceredigion has come to end - for now - as councillors received a final report on the now informal consultations.

In September last year, Ceredigion County Council cabinet members voted to launch statutory consultations on shutting the doors of four “unviable” village primary schools this August despite vehement local protests.

The consultations over the future of Ysgol Craig yr Wylfa in Borth, Ysgol Llanfihangel y Creuddyn, Ysgol Llangwyryfon, and Ysgol Syr John Rhys in Ponterwyd were then changed to informal consultations after a formal challenge was lodged over the plans.

The four schools were handed a stay of execution, with the council saying that the closure date of August 2025 was “not feasible”.

The then-ongoing formal consultations on the four schools were turned into informal consultations, with the results going before members at a special meeting of the council’s Learning Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 29 April.

Consultation documents show that 48 responses were received during the consultation phase for Ysgol Craig yr Wylfa, 58 responses for Ysgol Llanfihangel y Creuddyn, 34 for Ysgol Syr John Rhys, and 321 responses on Ysgol Llangwyryfon.

The move to shut the schools caused outrage among staff, parents and local communities, with dozens attending a fiery meeting on 3 September last year where the plan to launch closure consultations was approved.

Members heard that while closing the schools would cause “instability” for pupils, some staff losses, and increased costs, “sustainability” of schools was a “paramount consideration.”

At the time Cllr Wyn Thomas, the Cabinet member for education, told members that “unfortunately the overall reduction in pupil numbers is causing problems, particularly in our rural schools.”

“We are trying to face the challenges that are happening,” he said.

“These schools won’t be able to maintain staff [under the current budgets].

“The reports show that it is not appropriate to continue education in these schools because they are not viable.”

Rows followed that meeting over whether due process was followed in the planned closures of the schools, while council chiefs were accused of lying to members over whether the plans had been signed off by Welsh Government, leading to legal threats for school governors amid fiery meetings.

The report put before members said that a cross-party group of councillors “fully satisfied that they had not been misled by officers prior to, during or after the Cabinet meeting of 3 September.”

The results of the informal consultations will not go back before Cabinet.

If the council revisits the closure of the schools – a plan estimated to save the council around £200,000 a year– then the consultation exercise will have to begin again from scratch.

Ceredigion County Council Corporate Director Barry Rees told members at the meeting on 29 April that “after today there is no status to the responses if we start the process again”.

While the schools will not close this year, the closures have not been ruled out in the future.