Welsh council apologises after mistranslation in report suggested member said ‘immigrants’ instead of ‘incomers’

Speaking at a Cabinet Meeting last week (11 November), monitoring officer Iwan Evans said a professional translation team confirmed the member did not use the word 'immigrants'.

Cllr Peter Thomas was commenting on proposals to close a local primary school and raised fears over people leaving the village as a result.

A council report recorded that the member - who was speaking in Welsh during the meeting - said the closure could lead to "immigrants buying houses and making the village a foreign place".

However, Evans said he is now "satisfied" that the original translation failed to capture the member's intended meaning.

He told the cabinet: "Unfortunately, the translation wasn't entirely accurate. It wasn't the best translation."

He said: "I have since spoken to a professional translation team, and I am satisfied that wasn't a translation that's accurately reflected the aims and the wording of the original by the local member.

"The wording proposed by the professional translation team is that 'incomers would move into the houses and make the village in an unfamiliar place'.

"I think that's a better reflection of what was originally intended by the local member.

"There are so many inappropriate connotations around the word immigrants, so I'm just asking that that's correct, and if it could be in the minutes so that there's a formal record of the correction to the translation of the local members and original words."

The cabinet member for education, Cllr Dewi Jones, meanwhile said that Cllr Thomas had "behaved as a gentleman, and I think the translation of his words did not reflect his genuine feelings".

He added: "I think the translation of his words was unfortunate and doesn't reflect his genuine feelings. So I'm very pleased to see the change and this is a much better reflection of the local member views."

Gwynedd's chief executive, Dafydd Gibbard, also commented on the correction, to make a formal apology to Cllr Thomas,

"I apologise to Peter Thomas, who is doing excellent work representing his ward," he said.

Adam Carey