Monmouthshire council's English-only street sign policy failed to comply with the Welsh Language Commissioner's standards, it has been found. This comes after the commissioner received complaints from members of the public following the county council's decision to change their street numbering and naming rules.
Monmouthshire Council's original policy stated that English-only names on road signs would be translated into Welsh if a new sign was needed or replaced. According to the Welsh Language Commissioner, Welsh translation was not made the official name for the street however, as the Council noted that it would be a "very time consuming and costly procedure".
The county council conducted a report which recommended that replacement or additional signs on existing streets be kept English-only. The report also suggested that including a Welsh place name could lead to a "dangerous delay" if it did not officially exist in the National Land and Property Gazetteer - an initiative used by emergency services to find a location.
However, the Welsh Language Commissioner has found that their policy did not comply with the Welsh Language Standards. Under the Standards according to the commissioner, in amending their policy the council needed to consider what effects the amendment would have on the opportunities to use the Welsh language and on treating the Welsh language no less favourably than the English language.
Gwenith Price, deputy commissioner for the Welsh Language, said: "Following a complaint from a member of the public, I conducted an investigation under section 71 of the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 to determine whether there had been a failure by Monmouthshire County Council to comply with Welsh language standards.
"The Welsh Language Measure 2011 (Wales) makes it compulsory for certain organisations to comply with Welsh language standards by considering the opportunities for people to use Welsh and to not treat the Welsh language less favourably than the English language.”
She added: "The Commissioner's main aim is to promote and facilitate the use of the Welsh language. Organisations should not take decisions to do less for the Welsh language than they previously did, or to do the minimum where more progressive action in relation to the Welsh language was already being made.
“The suggestion repeatedly made by the council that the policy had been amended to 'comply' with the Code of Practice is wrong and goes against the spirit of the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 and the role of the Welsh Language Commissioner."
In response, a spokesperson for Monmouthshire Council said: "The Welsh language is an important part of the culture and heritage of our place and the County Council is committed to ensuring that Monmouthshire plays its part and is having a positive impact towards achieving the Welsh Government’s ambitious strategy of having a million Welsh speakers by 2050.
"The Commissioner’s report found that we had fallen short of the standards relating to policy making in the case of our street naming policy. We have accepted the findings of the report and are working to ensure that these standards are fully complied with in future. We remain committed to ensuring that all new street names are Welsh only or fully bilingual." To get more stories like this straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters here.
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