The Telegraph newspaper has reported that Welsh language road signs "will be added to road signs despite warning of risk to lives". The newspaper was reporting on the situation in Monmouthshire, where the council's English-only street sign policy was found to breach with the Welsh Language Commissioner's standards.
But in its headline it focused on a claim that including Welsh on road signs in Monmouthshire (which it described as a "border county") would "risk lives". Its subhead said: "Officials in Monmouthshire say the move could delay ambulance response times by confusing paramedics unfamiliar with the language."
The issue came to light after a report from the Welsh Language Commissioner found that Monmouthshire council's English-only street sign policy failed to comply with its standards. The commissioner had received a number of complaints from members of the public following the council's decision to change their street numbering and naming rules.
Monmouthshire Council conducted its own report, which recommended that the replacement of, or additional, signs on existing streets were to 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, which is an initiative used by emergency services to find a location.
But the Welsh Language Commissioner said that 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.
Read more: No, everyone, Welsh road signs do not make you crash your car (or your ambulance)
In response to the Welsh Language Commissioner's report, a spokesperson for the council said that they had accepted the findings of the report and were working to ensure that these standards were "fully complied with in the future".
The Telegraph article reported that the Welsh Government had "banned a border county" from using English-only street signs, "despite being warned it would put lives at risk". It also said that officials in Monmouthshire said the move to bilingualism could delay ambulance response times by "confusing paramedics unfamiliar with the language".
The article then went on to list the Welsh place names of familiar towns in the county, such as Trefynwy for Monmouth, Cas-gwent for Chepstow and Y Fenni for Abergavenny, as examples of place names that could have "potential for confusion".
It also added that the devolved administration’s Welsh language commissioner "rapped the council for ignoring rules" about mandatory bilingual signs, despite the fact that "less than 20 per cent of the county’s residents speak Welsh".
Gwenith Price the deputy commissioner for the Welsh Language, had argued that the county's decision to comply with the Code of Practice was "wrong". She said: "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."
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