Issue - meetings

To present information about the progress of the Place-names Project.

Resolved:

·       To accept the report and note the observations received.

·       Recommend and support the Cabinet Member to try and find resources to extend the period of the project to ensure the development and continuity of the service.

The report was presented by the Welsh Language Promotion Project Officer and attention was briefly drawn to the following main points: ⁠ ⁠

Members were reminded that the project was established in 2021 following increasing concerns over a number of years that Welsh names were being lost. It was noted that one of the project's main developments was the Cyngor Gwynedd Place Name Map. It was explained that it noted local names of places within the county, such as fields, roads, buildings, areas and rivers which were used verbally but had not been recorded in official maps. Details were given that the map continued to be populated with new names following workshops in 15 primary schools and 1 secondary school. Individuals with correct information about Welsh local names in their area were encouraged to contact the Officer to populate the map in even more detail.

Attention was drawn to several projects underway to raise awareness of the importance of local names and the historical, linguistic and cultural richness that they included. It was elaborated that the Officer published 'Yr Enw a'r Hanes' articles internally to Council staff to note the history of a place name within the County. Pride was expressed that this was the page that received the most visitors of all the Intranet pages.

It was reported that the project had been very active during the week of the 2023 National Eisteddfod in Boduan. It was noted that the Officer was a member of a national discussion panel accompanied by Jeremy Miles MS (Minister for the Welsh Language) and Dr Dylan Foster Evans (Welsh Place-Name Society) to continue discussions on legal arrangements and policies in this field. Reference was also made to a discussion held on local names in the Babell Lên at the Eisteddfod. Pride was expressed that this discussion held by the Officer had been broadcasted on S4C as part of the Eisteddfod’s programme of the best of the festival (Goreuon yr Ŵyl). It was added that the Officer had been discussing the matter on BBC Radio Cymru by having a four-month contract to discuss local accents and names.

Reference was made to an application that came before the project to try to ensure that Welsh-only names were put on street signs. It was emphasised that the Officer had been investigating the process of renovating all signs, confirming that this would be too costly to implement. However, it was confirmed that the project had adopted an alternative project. Details were given that one of the main aims of this project was to install new signs for locations and areas, such as Twthill (Caernarfon), Lôn Rocar (Llandygai) and Lôn Groes (Pistyll), where there were no existing signs. It was considered that this would make the Welsh language more visible in the county.

Additional projects were mentioned which focused on installing signs such as:

·       Erection of signs marking the old Welsh names of some of the streets in Caernarfon (in association with Caernarfon Civic Society)

·       Welsh only signs erected in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9