On Monday 3rd June the newly appointed Education Minister, Lynne Neagle made the announcement that the proposed legislation to alter the school year has been deferred until well into the next Senedd term, which is effectively after May 2027.
Over 16,000 responses were returned in the consultation with a very small majority favouring an alteration to the school calendar which would have seen a reduction in the current six week summer holiday with the replacement holidays going into the shoulder seasons when weather conditions are much less favourable.
Our director, George Reid, as chair of the Southwest Regional Tourism Forum and colleagues from around Wales, have been extremely active in making the case against this proposal on behalf of businesses within the visitor economy sector.
There has been no end of lobbying and meetings with officials and ministers at every opportunity, where the case for the unintended consequences of this policy on our sector were laid out.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out the consultancy document without whom we may have had a different outcome.
On behalf of the businesses in the south west we are grateful to the minister for this outcome.
This action by a cabinet secretary does give us hope that we can make progress in seeking a review of the 182 rule, the Tourism Levy, as well as major influence in the introduction of a Registration system which has already been altered from a proposed permissive licencing scheme.
The BBC News storey on the announcement can be found
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