 Peter Hughes Griffiths addressed the public meeting in Carmarthen |
A legal challenge may be mounted in an attempt to stop a non-Welsh speaker becoming Carmarthenshire's next director of education. About 200 people attended a meeting to protest the decision not to make Welsh speaking a requirement of the post.
Candidates for the �100,000-a-year job will be interviewed later this month.
The council says when the post was first advertised with bi-lingualism as essential only five people applied so it was forced to drop the condition.
 |  The post of public executioner is not usually the easiest to fill  |
Friday night's meeting in Carmarthen was organised by councillor Peter Hughes Griffiths.
One of the authority's eight strong appointments panel, he has refused to sit in on interviews until the post is re-advertised.
"Many of the people who have contacted me are non-Welsh speakers who are very keen for their children and the director to a be person that is able to speak in both languages," he told the meeting.
The crowd was also addressed by two former education directors in Carmarthenshire, Keith Price Davies and John Ellis.
'Language extremists'
Both said the ability to speak Welsh was essential to be able to do the job effectively.
The issue is all the more controversial because the council plans to close up to 32 small schools in the county and replace them with 'area' schools.
Education spokesman of Cymdeithas yr Iaith (The Welsh Language Society) Ffred Ffransis, said: "This obviously makes competent Welsh-speakers think twice before applying for the post.
 Around 200 people attending the public meeting in Carmarthen |
"The post of public executioner is not usually the easiest to fill."
A small campaign group will meet in the next few days to draw-up plans for a legal challenge.
But Carmarthenshire's deputy leader, Martin Morris, has accused those campaigning for a bi-lingual director as being 'Welsh language extremists'.
"What we want here in Carmarthenshire is the best person for the job, it is too important to base it purely on language skills," he said.
"There is a very real danger that top quality candidates could be put off from joining us.
"No-one could blame the candidates for deciding to go elsewhere and the children and education in Carmarthenshire would be the ones to lose out.
"And it is in fact completely biased against English speaking people - who make more than half the Welsh population."
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