Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

People in Wrexham 'more likely to speak Portugese or Polish than Welsh'

Council community leader says Welsh is now only the fourth most popular language in North Wales' largest town

Dean Kirby
Wednesday 11 November 2015 20:31 GMT
Comments
File photo
File photo (Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

People living in the biggest town in North Wales are more likely to speak Portuguese or Polish than Welsh, it has been claimed.

The statistic emerged during a debate at Wrexham council, which decided to appeal against a move to impose 171 “standards” for promoting the Welsh language. Hugh Jones, the council’s lead member for communities, said Welsh was now only the fourth most popular language in Wrexham after English, Polish and Portuguese.

But he said the council was “fully supportive” of Welsh, despite councillors voting to try to get out of 10 of 171 standards set by the Welsh Language Commissioner Meri Huws.

He said the council had provided more than 3,000 hours of Welsh language training to staff during the past 12 months, but there had been difficulties in recruiting Welsh speakers.

It is claimed there have been complaints that the voice recognition system on a council hotline was struggling to recognise some Welsh accents.

The council’s Welsh language officer will now launch an appeal over the standards.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in