THE online consultation on controversial plans to shake up sixth form provision in the Haverfordwest area has been extended to midnight on Friday following a 'technical error'.

There was frustration when people logged on over the Bank Holiday weekend to air their views on the plan - which could see the county town lose both its school sixth forms and be replaced with a sixth form centre at Pembrokeshire College - only to be told it had already closed, four days before its advertised closing date of May 5.

They were left with the option of printing out hard copies and taking them to County Hall, which some will have been unable to do.

One commentator told the Western Telegraph: “I am trying to make my voice heard in protest against the proposed removal of 6th provision form within schools in mid and North Pembrokeshire.

“However, now on the evening of May 2, even though there are still three days before the consultation finishes on 5th May, attempting to complete the online statutory consultation form on the Pembrokeshire CC website displays the message ‘This survey is now closed’.

“This is not only frustrating, but also completely outrageous. It is undermining the consultation process.”

Pheniah Patterson added: “After attempting today to complete the online consultation form for the above and finding that the site was ‘closed’.

“How very disappointing and inefficient of Pembrokeshire County Council to have stated quite clearly that the deadline for returning the consultation document had been extended to 5th May 2015 instead of the 1st May as originally stated only to find that the online submission has already closed!

“By the time we the public can complain about this it will already be the 5th May.”

“With the Bank Holiday this means the only way to now submit the Council questionnaire is to hand them in personally in County Hall, Haverfordwest. This discriminates against those who cannot do this, and means many people who were hoping to submit online questionnaires cannot do so,” added Jane Davies.

A spokesman for Pembrokeshire County Council said: "Unfortunately we had a technical problem with the online response form for the Review of Secondary Education Provision in Mid and North West Pembrokeshire, and Welsh-medium Provision over the weekend.

"We apologise for this and the problem has now been resolved.

"As a result, we are extending the online consultation until the end of this working week, that is until midnight, Friday 8th May."

Cllr Viv Stoddart added: “It’s human nature to leave things to the last minute.

“With a long bank holiday weekend, many people would have taken their time to read the consultation document, with the intention to respond online before the Tuesday deadline.

“They will be dumbfounded to discover, as I was, that the computer says ‘This survey is closed.’ “Secondary school reorganisation is such an important issue for education throughout the county, that the consultation process must be beyond reproach.”