THERE was “no scheme” to boost pupil numbers at a school set to be closed by Ceredigion County Council, its local member said.

Cllr Lyndon Lloyd made the statement at full council on Thursday (July 31) after members were told that of 10 applications to attend Trewen Primary School, only one family could be located for pre-admission checks.

Cabinet member schools service and lifelong learning Cllr Catrin Miles told the meeting that when welfare checks were carried out by an inclusion officer, six children could not be located and another three supposedly moving to the area were “not known at either of the addresses given.”

Chief executive Eifion Evans said that although the school closure process had finished - which saw three schools shutting their doors in Trewen, Beulah and Cilcennin – it was “only fair that you know the alleged figures were not correct.”

Cllr Lyndon Lloyd said it could look like there had been “some sort of scheme here to mislead the county council” in a bid to boost numbers but this was not the case.

“As governors, community councillors and the two county councillors we didn’t know anything about this.

“There’s something very odd about the whole situation,” said Cllr Lloyd.