Community council calls for English speakers to be banned from Welsh housing development

5 September 2024, 17:38

Non-Welsh speakers face being blocked from purchasing new homes in a proposed housing estate amid claims they pose a “danger” to the community.

Botwnnog community council in Gwynedd, North Wales, has called for English speakers to be banned from purchasing properties on an 18-home affordable housing development in the small village.

The rural village, located in the Llŷn Peninsula, is home to less than 1,000 people, with three-quarters of children at the local school speaking Welsh, according to data published by the local government.

Councillors have claimed moving English speakers into the houses could be a “danger to the Welsh language” and cause damage to “the fabric of the community.”

These claims have led to a heated debate within the local community.

Calling for the plans, which were submitted to Cyngor Gwynedd, the region’s county council, to be amended to block English speakers, the community council said: “It would be great if the availability of the proposed houses could be limited to Welsh speakers only, but despite that, it cannot be proven that a large number of these houses would not become non-Welsh speaking households, if not all of them.”

“As we know, it only takes the presence of a few non-Welsh speaking people to turn the community’s language of communication from Welsh to English.

“The applicant acknowledges this possibility but expects the community to do the necessary integration work. The lesson from the history of many Welsh communities is that this is not likely to happen.”

The community council continued: “This degenerative force does not recognise boundaries.”

The firm that submitted the application, Cae Capel Cyf, has rubbished claims by the community council that allowing English speakers into the homes could harm the community.

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“The occupiers can be expected to be local people, and thus the population of the development will have the same Welsh language characteristics as the local population as they will be drawn from it,” the company pointed out.

“As such, impact upon the language will be nil or at most very modest, and certainly not sufficient to be materially harmful to the language.”

The call for English speakers to be banned has split the local community, with one resident branding the council “Welsh language zealots.”

“What nonsense,” one pensioner said, the Telegraph reports.

“Would they like language tests carried out to see who qualifies?“These are Welsh language zealots. They’re doing more harm to community cohesion and the image of Wales.”