Issue - meetings

To report to the Scrutiny Committee on the performance of the Economy Department.

·       To accept the report and note the comments;

·       That consideration needs to be given to scrutiny of the benefit of the Growth Deal for Gwynedd including the alternative project in Trawsfynydd

·       To ask the Economy and Community Department to provide three-year rolling data on numbers who have received return to work support

·       To ask the Department to make a request to Byw'n Iach Company for user data;

To request that the department seeks funding and wider support for the Caernarfon Food Festival and to show more clearly in the report that there is funding for social enterprises.

The report was submitted by the Cabinet Member, noting that it had been a very busy period for the department, with one grant cycle coming to an end whilst another was starting. It was highlighted that the department had 4 priority schemes in the Council Plan, three in the A Prosperous Gwynedd section and one as part of the A Caring Gwynedd programme. It was noted that good progress had been made against the milestones, but the risk common for the four was uncertainty about the future of the budgets as they were funded by grant funding. 

Members were guided through the plans, giving them a taste of the ongoing work, drawing attention to fields such as the significant work made to complete expenditure of the ARFOR programme and the Shared Prosperity Fund projects. It was highlighted that there was 49% less funding available for Gwynedd and the counties of north Wales whilst looking at the Shared Prosperity Fund, but work to identify the 2025/26 priorities had already started.

In terms of the department's day-to-day work, it was highlighted that there was concern that the number of pupils receiving swimming lessons in leisure centres continued to reduce as well as the dredging challenges in Pwllheli Hafan and Harbour. It was noted that the customer satisfaction level was high in many fields in the department, namely the archives service, museums, the arts and the libraries service.

During the discussion, the following observations and questions were presented:- 

Attention was drawn to the reduction in the number of pupils receiving swimming lessons, highlighting that this was likely as a result of high transport costs to the centres. It was noted, although this was a problem seen in many rural areas, that the same picture was also seen in urban schools, specifically in deprived areas. It was asked for an analysis of swimming statistics to see the extent of the problem. In the discussion about swimming, it was also asked for an analysis of the users of Byw'n Iach leisure centres to see what the patterns were in terms of which areas used the facilities and in what areas. It was agreed to share the information with the members.

It was asked about the Growth Deal developments in north Wales, as it appeared that there was no progress. The department explained that many things were happening but there had been changes to various projects for many reasons. In terms of Gwynedd projects, it was noted that the Trawsfynydd project submitted by the Egino company back in 2019 had now been withdrawn as the site was not favoured by the Welsh Government for further nuclear developments. Although the Leader attempted to divert the funding to an alternative project, it was resolved that it would not be possible to do this with any withdrawn project and a principle was set that a new application would have to be submitted. Consequently, it was noted that a new application to develop a Science Park on the site was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9