Plans to slash funding for Welsh immersion centres will  be debated next week, amid fears it would impact on the use of the language within Gwynedd’s schools.

As part of planned cuts to help balance the books, the local authority is considering slashing  the available funding for its immersion centres by £96,00 from September next year.

The five centres teach Welsh intensively to children who come from outside the area so they can study through the medium of Welsh when they join their local school, and are based in Dolgellau, Llangybi, Maesincla, Penrhyndeudraeth and Porthmadog.

But language campaigners fear that the proposed funding cut could have a “devastating” impact o the status of Welsh within the county despite the council’s claims that cuts have to be made.

A meeting of Gwynedd’s Education and Economy Scrutiny Committee will be asked to recommend in which form these cuts should be implemented, ranging from shutting one of the centres to keeping all of them open but changing the staffing structure in order to achieve the required savings.

The report that will be presented to members next Thursday, notes: “In 2018/19, Welsh Government cut the Education Improvement Grant (EIG) by 10%. This means a shortfall of £61,000 in the budget of Gwynedd Language Centres from 2018/29 onwards.

“This year, we succeeded to bridge this shortfall, although cuts have been made to other headings within the EIG, such as the Foundation Phase.

“For 2019/20, the news we received from Welsh Government was better than expected for the EIG, namely confirmation of a neutral settlement for the EIG for 2019/20.

“However, in light of inflation to salaries and pensions, this means a further shortfall in the budget of approximately £35,000 from September 2019 onwards.”

But the pressure group, Cymdeithas yr Iaith, has written to councillors warning that the proposed cuts are a threat to the vitality of the language locally and nationally.

In a letter to councillors in Gwynedd, Toni Schiavone said: “Gwynedd language centres are the one success in Wales there has been in terms of including the children of people from outside the country – sustaining Welsh-medium education for all and making sure that incomers have fair play and full access to local communities.

“These centres are central to the local and national language strategies. It’s a model which has been recognised by the Government as excellent practice and a service that’s central to their language policy’s success.

“These centres make a vital contribution to creating confident Welsh speakers towards the national goal of reaching a million speakers.

“Reducing the provision in these crucial centres practically invalidates Gwynedd’s schools language policy and their language charter.

“If it’s not possible to give Welsh language skills to children who’ve moved in before they go to the local schools, it will impose an extra and unsustainable burden on teachers.

“The proposed cuts would threaten Welsh in the schools and communities of Gwynedd for supposed savings of £96,000 – namely £1,800 a week, or 1.4 pence a head for people in Gwynedd.

“Do you really want to allow this devastating impact on the effectiveness of the county’s service for saving like this? The success of the language policy in local schools and the inclusion of newcomers in Welsh-speaking communities depends on this.”

The proposal will be discussed by Gwynedd’s Education and Economy Scrutiny Committee when it meets in Caernarfon on Thursday.