Issue - meetings

To submit the report of the Council Leader.

To adopt the Gwynedd and Anglesey Public Services Board Well-being Plan 2023-28.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Dyfrig Siencyn, presented the report, inviting the Council to adopt the Gwynedd and Anglesey Public Services Board Well-being Plan 2023-28, and the Gwynedd and Anglesey Public Services Board Programme Manager elaborated further on the content.

The Leader thanked the Programme Manager for all of her work in preparing the plan.

Members were given an opportunity to make observations and ask questions.  The following matters were raised by individual members:

It was noted that concern had already been expressed at the Communities Scrutiny Committee regarding the concept that the Welsh language was a golden thread that ran through the whole plan, instead of being a clear objective in a box, and assurance was sought that the officers had acted on that feedback before submitting this report to the Council.

In response, the Leader noted –

·         That whether placing the Welsh language in a box strengthened or weakened the language was a matter of opinion. 

·         That the Welsh language was an integral part of every field that the Board was involved with, and that the Welsh language did not need to be placed in a box.  He therefore believed that it was stronger, and he could guarantee that there would be no change in viewpoint regarding the Welsh language.

·         That all partners had made a financial contribution to projects, under the leadership of the Chair of the Board, Aled Jones-Griffith, relating to the use of Welsh across all organisations in their receptions, and he believed that there was more money to come for future projects regarding the Welsh language.

The Programme Manager added that the same comment had arisen when discussing with the other groups, and that she hoped that the current plan was quite different to the original draft, after the language aspect had been strengthened.

It was asked what the situation would be as a result of a future change in leadership, without any language policies or protection.

In response, the Leader noted that the Welsh language was not a personal matter for him, and that the Welsh language was a priority for Cyngor Gwynedd as an organisation.  To that end, whoever would be representing the Council on the Board in the future would clearly set out the Council's perspective in terms of the Welsh language.

The Programme Manager added:-

·         That the Board's terms of reference stated clearly that the work of the Board was done in Welsh.

·         That she believed that the most effective projects that the Board had been involved with related to the Welsh language, where all partners had committed to them.

·         That there was a new project in the pipeline to look at difficulties in appointing to posts where Welsh was essential, within the different organisations.

With reference to paragraph 2.9 in the front report, it was noted that the specific actions in relation to Welsh were obvious in Well-being Objective 2, where reference was made to transferring the language, but that there was a wish to have examples in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9