Issue - meetings

To report on work to-date in developing a new Economy Plan for Gwynedd, inviting the input of Members on the content of this report and on any additional issues they believe are important in shaping the Plan.

DECISION

1.     To accept the report and note the observations.

2.     That the Committee scrutinises the Draft Gwynedd Economy Plan when timely during 2025/26.

The Cabinet Member for Economy and Community was welcomed to his first meeting of the scrutiny committee and was congratulated on his appointment. ⁠ The Head of the Economy and Community Department and the officers were also welcomed to the meeting.

Submitted – a report by the Cabinet Member inviting input from the members on the contents and on further issues they believed should be considered in compiling the Gwynedd Economy Plan.

The Cabinet Member noted at the outset that this item followed on from the discussion at the scrutiny committee meeting on 25 January 2024 regarding the implementation of the Gwynedd Economy Development Project.

In response to the Chair's comments at the start of the meeting, the Head of Economy and Community Department explained:-

That it was fair to say, when the report was presented last year, that they had expected to be in a considerably different position by now.

The hope last autumn, when there had been a discussion in the Leadership Team, was that there would now be a completed document ready to be printed. This had not happened, although much work had taken place.

They needed to go back to the Leadership Team, and she believed that it was beneficial to have this committee's input today to the principles and direction so that the document that would be submitted to the Leadership Team incorporated the scrutineers' observations.

A draft of the finished document was not ready today since the Department had re-scheduled the work since the autumn. That had happened for several reasons, which included starting again on setting a new direction in the wake of appointing a new Cabinet Member, and re-planning work priorities to take account of an additional year's worth of work in light of the UK Government's decision to extend the Levelling Up Fund for an extra year.

The Cabinet Member set out the context for the report, noting the following:-

The UK Government's confirmation that the Levelling Up Fund would continue for a further year to 2025/26 was to be welcomed, but we could be certain that the financial landscape would change once again after April 2026. Consequently, the requirement for this Council to consider its economic priorities remained.

Securing a document that clearly stated our aspirations would also be an important tool in influencing discussions by the two governments within the North Wales region.

The purpose of the report to hand was to summarise the messages received and to obtain comments and feedback from the scrutineers before proceeding to finish compiling the Economic Development Strategic Plan and adopting it in the new financial year.

The members were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. ⁠ 

A member expressed their opinion that it was difficult to scrutinise a progress report – the members had hoped to scrutinise a draft version of the Gwynedd Economy Plan at this meeting. They noted that there could be no certainty whether there would be another opportunity for this committee to scrutinise the plan before it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5