Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chairman for 2016/17.

Councillor Eric Merfyn Jones was elected as Chair for 2016/2017.

Councillor Eric Merfyn Jones signed a declaration accepting the post of the Chair of Gwynedd Council for 2016/2017.

To elect a Vice-chairman for 2016/17.

Councillor Annwen Daniels was elected as Vice-chair for 2016/17.

Councillor Annwen Daniels signed a declaration accepting the post of Vice-chair of Gwynedd Council for 2016/17.

To receive any apologies for absence

Councillors: Craig ab Iago, Endaf Cooke, Gwynfor Edwards, Alan Jones Evans, Jean Forsyth, Chris Hughes, Louise Hughes, Jason Humphreys, Dyfrig Jones, Christopher O’Neal, Glyn Thomas, Gethin Glyn Williams and Hefin Williams.

The Chairman shall propose that the minutes of the meetings of the Council held on the following dates be signed as true records (attached)

(i) 3 March, 2016

(ii) 18 March, 2016 (extraordinary meeting)

The Chair signed the minutes of the previous meetings of the Council held on the following dates as a true record.

(i) 3 March 2016

(ii) 18 March, 2016 (extraordinary meeting)

To receive any declaration of personal interest.

Members had received a guidance note from the Monitoring Officer in advance regarding item 14 on the agenda – Members' Salaries.

As a consequence of the nature of the report on Members' Salaries, and in order to comply with the requirements under the Code of Conduct, the Chair declared a personal interest in the item on behalf of all members present but as it was not a prejudicial interest, members would have the right to participate in the discussion and to vote on the matter.

To receive any Chairman’s announcements.

(1)     Condolences

Condolences were expressed to the following:-

·         Councillor John Brynmor Hughes on the death of his mother.

·         Councillor Linda A. W. Jones on the death of her mother.

(2)     Congratulations

The following were congratulated:

·         Councillor Alan Jones Evans and his wife on their recent marriage.

·         Councillor Christopher O'Neal and his wife on the birth of their twins - two little girls.

·         Councillor Sian Gwenllian and Lord Elis-Thomas on their election as Assembly Members. Councillor Sian Gwenllian provided a brief address thanking her fellow members and officers for every assistance and support throughout the last few years.

·         Arfon Jones on his election as North Wales Police Crime Commissioner.

To receive any correspondence, communications or other business brought forward at the request of the Chairman.

None.

To note any items which are urgent business in the opinion of the Chairman so they may be considered.

None.

To consider any questions the appropriate notice for which have been given under Section 4.19 of the Constitution.

None.

(a)        To submit the report of the Head of Corporate Support (attached).

(b)        To receive a presentation by the Wales Audit Office.

Huw Lloyd Jones and Jeremy Evans from the Wales Audit Office were welcomed to the meeting.

Submitted – Gwynedd Council’s Annual Improvement Report 2015-16, along with an advance report from the Head of Corporate Support setting out the context.

The Leader provided brief guidance and then Huw Lloyd Jones was invited to provide a verbal presentation on the Annual Improvement Report 2015-16.

In his presentation, Huw Lloyd Jones explained that the report was not an attempt to provide a fully comprehensive picture of the Council's work but rather to summarise all the auditing work completed during the year in Gwynedd, along with the observations of Estyn, the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales and the Welsh Language Commissioner. He provided an outline of the main reasons which had led to the opinion of the Auditor General that the Council was likely to make arrangements to ensure continuous improvements for 2016/17 and he elaborated on the main findings of the three themes of work, namely performance in some specific fields, the manner in which the Council used its resources and aspects of governance.

Questions/observations were invited from the members. Several issues were raised, including:- 

·         The requirement to ensure continuous improvements in a period of cuts.

·         The fees charged by the Audit Officer for their work.

·         The accountability of the Trunk Road Agency and the need for the Minister to also be more accountable and transparent and not to prevent Gwynedd employees of the Trunk Road Agency from responding directly to enquiries from residents and local councillors.

·         The present division between the work of the Cabinet and scrutiny.

·         The potential advantages of an arrangement of a Shadow Cabinet/Shadow Cabinet Members.

·         The challenge facing the Services Scrutiny Committee considering that approximately 75% of the Council's budget was spent in the fields scrutinised by that committee.

·         Satisfaction from being given to understand that the Council continued to improve in priority fields and that it had robust financial management arrangements in place.

·         Acknowledgement that there were weaknesses in the scrutiny arrangements, the recommendations for improvement and the timetable for that. 

·         Satisfaction that the national report recommendation of 2015-16 regarding developing effective leaders and recruiting the best talent recognised the problem of attracting leaders of quality.

·         Slower progress than what was expected in the field of special education.

Huw Lloyd Jones and Jeremy Evans were thanked for their guidance to members on how to improve Gwynedd.

To submit the report of the Council Leader (attached).

The Head of Legal Services /Monitoring Officer withdrew from the meeting because of his statutory function as Monitoring Officer.

Submitted - the Leader’s report report which:-

(a)   Sought the Council's viewpoint on the matter of the referendum on membership of the   European Union and specifically the question regarding whether or not there would be more benefit for Gwynedd residents of remaining a member of the European Union.

(b)  Recommended that the Council stated that it was of the opinion that Gwynedd residents would derive more benefits by remaining a member of the European Union.

Further to the content of the report, the Leader noted:-

·         Gwynedd had benefited by £158m from European funds since 2000 and this had created an investment of £300m for the county during this period.

·         He did not believe that it would have been possible for Gwynedd to attract these amounts of funding from any other source.

·         Some of the projects in Gwynedd that had benefited from European funding included Pont Briwet (worth approximately £20m); Plas Heli, Pwllheli (approximately £9m); Blaenau Ffestiniog Rejuvenation Scheme (£4.5m); Snowdonia Centre of Excellence (£4.5m); Llwyddo'n Lleol (equal to £3.2m investment for Gwynedd).   

During the discussion, it was noted:-

·         This was the most important issue which had faced the UK in a generation.

·         Businesses in Wales had access to 500,000 customers in the European Union. Thus far, this had been tariff-free but if the UK left the EU, a tariff would be imposed on all the trade going to and from Europe such as exports and imports which would mean an added cost for the consumer, higher costs for businesses and damage to the economy.  

·         71% of businesses which were members of the CBI stated that membership of the European Union had had a positive effect on businesses and 67% of all members which were small and medium businesses were also of the same opinion. 

·         It could also be argued that we received £10 for every £1 we paid the European Union, not necessarily directly as cash but in the form of benefits stemming from trading with the European Union, e.g. low prices, growth of jobs and commerce.

·         Remaining in the EU could create 75,000 additional jobs in the EU over the next 15 years.

·         An independent assessment had calculated that 190,000 jobs in Wales had trading links with the EU, namely one in eight jobs.

·         In Wales, more than 50,000 were employed in agriculture and agriculture was one of the main winners through the Common Agriculture Policy.

·         Leaving the EU would lead to a loss of all the grants and would mean more costly imports and exports.    Also, there could be a possible tariff of 40% on farming.

·         The amount paid to the European Union was very small compared with what was paid for other essential services, but the gains in commercial terms and job opportunities were far greater than what it cost.

·         There was a need to strengthen the powers of the Committee of the Regions and the Leader and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

To submit the report of the Monitoring Officer  (attached).

          Submitted - the report of the Monitoring Officer inviting the Council to adopt a series of amendments to some key elements of the current Code of Conduct as a consequence of the introduction of the Local Authorities (Model Code of Conduct) (Wales) (Amendment) Order 2016 on 1 April 2016.

RESOLVED to adopt the amendments to the Code of Conduct for Members in accordance with the report.

(a)        To submit the report of Councillor Thomas G.Ellis, Chairman of the Democratic Services Committee  (attached).

(b)        To select a Chairman for 2016/17.

(a)  Councillor Thomas G. Ellis, Chair of the Democratic Services Committee, submitted the annual report, updating the members on the support that was available, the developments that had been realised and those which were ongoing.

(b)     It was reported that there was a need to appoint a Chair for 2016/17.

RESOLVED to elect Councillor Thomas G. Ellis as Chair of the Democratic Services Committee for 2016/17.

To submit the report of Councillor Thomas G. Ellis, Chairman of the Democratic Services Committee (attached).

Submitted - the report of Councillor Thomas G. Ellis, Chairman of the Democratic Services Committee, on behalf of a sub-group of the Committee, recommending the way forward in respect of elected members' salaries.

Referring to the recommendation to keep the level of salaries of Cabinet Members and Committee Chairs on Level 1, an amendment was proposed and seconded to reduce the salaries levels to Level 2, on the grounds that this would save approximately £40,000 to be spent in other fields and showed the residents of the county that the Council was willing to share the pain of the current period of austerity.

Some members expressed their objection to the amendment on the grounds that:-

·         Although there was always room to examine the salaries of all members, it would be a mistake to separate the Cabinet Members' duties from the salary as the duties would remain the same but the salaries would be reduced.

·         Cabinet Members had been appointed to the posts on a full-time basis and some had given up other jobs or had had to make special arrangements to be able to take on the role.

·         This was not the time to review salaries but rather at the beginning of the Council's new term.

·         If there was a desire to re-visit salaries, then all members' salaries should be examined and not Cabinet Members' salaries only.

A vote was taken on the amendment and it fell.

Referring to the recommendation not to pay the higher salary to the Chair of the Employment Appeals Committee hereafter, the current Chair of the Employment Appeals Committee (who would be standing down this month), expressed his objection to the recommendation on the grounds that:-

·         The Committee acted on behalf of 6,000 - 7,000 Council employees and had to make very difficult and emotional decisions e.g. dismissing staff.

·         The number of meetings had increased with the committee convening at least once a month and sometimes twice a month.

·         The meetings were all-day meetings and one meeting had continued for two days and another meeting had gone from 9.30am until 7.00pm.

·         The sub-group which had examined members' salaries had not discussed the workload with him or with members of the Committee before forming their recommendation.

·         If the Council was willing to refuse the recommendation, he was willing to propose that the sub-group should undertake more research on the issue which would include questioning the chairs and members of the Employment Appeals Committee and the Pensions Committee regarding the workload.

The amendment to retain the current arrangements because of the workload of the Employment Appeals Committee was proposed and seconded.

During the discussion on the amendment, it was noted:-

·         Additional work facing the Chair of the Pensions Committee could lead to 17 meetings a year, including an overnight stay on some occasions and it could mean committing to at least 19 days in this respect.

·         Members of the Pensions Committee had to undertake continuous training and assessments.

·         It was anticipated that the sub-group had examined in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

To submit the report of the Council Leader  (attached).

Submitted - the report of the Leader detailing the annual review of the Council's political balance.

It was explained that the allocation of seats on committees (Appendix A of the report) was consistent with what had been adopted on 3 March, 2016 and to approve the recommendation because the regulations had not been fully implemented, the Council would have to approve them without objection (as had been done in the past).

RESOLVED

(a)  To adopt the allocation of seats on the Council’s committees in accordance with the table below –

SCRUTINY COMMITTEES

OTHER COMMITTEES

(a)       To delegate the power to the Head of Democratic Services to make appointments to the committees on the basis of political balance and in accordance with the wishes of the political groups.

(b)       To allocate the chairpersonships of scrutiny committees on the basis of political balance as follows:-

Corporate Scrutiny Committee – Llais Gwynedd

Communities Scrutiny Committee – Plaid Cymru

Services Scrutiny Committee – Independent

In accordance with the Notice of Motion received under Section 4.20 of the Constitution, Councillor Owain Williams will propose as follows:-

“That the Council asks Gwynedd Council’s Cabinet to consider reviewing its policy regarding the allocation of contracts to food suppliers in our schools and the priority it gives to small local companies.

The logic behind this is the fact that it alleges that it gives priority to small local companies rather than large companies.  This is crucially important as some companies supply imported food, especially meat. The importance of being able to trace the source of every type of meat cannot be over-emphasised, given the difficulties and dangers for children and adults of eating contaminated meat e.g. mad cow disease.  Arguing that the price of meat supplied by large companies is cheaper is futile and cynical; what price the safety and health of our children?"

(a)  Submitted - the following notice of motion by Councillor Owain Williams, in accordance with Section 4.20 of the Constitution and it was seconded.

"That the Council asks Gwynedd Council's Cabinet to consider reviewing its policy regarding the allocation of contracts to food suppliers in our schools and the priority it gives to small local companies.

The logic behind this is the fact that they allege that they give priority to small local companies rather than large companies. This is crucially important as some companies supply imported food, especially meat. The importance of being able to trace the source of every type of meat cannot be over-emphasised, given the difficulties and dangers for children and adults of eating contaminated meat e.g. mad cow disease.  Arguing that the price of meat supplied by large companies is cheaper is futile and cynical, therefore what price is placed on the safety and health of our children."

A member called on the proposer to delete the second paragraph of his proposal, on the grounds that:-

·         Its content was factually inaccurate as there was clear information about the source of all meat on the labels these days.

·         Making an allegation that it was possible for the Council to bypass all the strict regulations regarding the sale of meat was completely unreasonable.

The proposer noted that he was unwilling to delete the second paragraph.

An amendment was proposed and seconded to delete the second paragraph and to amend the first paragraph as follows:-

"That the Council asks Gwynedd Council's Cabinet to increase their efforts to keep the benefit local and to collaborate with and empower small local companies to compete for tenders."

During the discussion on the amendment, the Cabinet Member for the Economy noted:-

·         This was not a matter of choice, but a legal business process and although it would have been an easy option for Gwynedd to purchase on a north Wales level, the Council had succeeded in their business case to move away from that as the arrangement did not suit the smaller scale businesses in the county. 

·         Furthermore, the county was divided into smaller sections to provide an opportunity for businesses to tender and there had been sessions to meet the buyer etc., to raise awareness and considerable work had been undertaken by officers of this Council to empower the businesses.

·         It was not legally possible for the Council to include in a contract that the company received the work because it was a local company but it was possible to deviate from the arrangements by giving them favourable conditions.

·         The second paragraph of the original proposal was unjustified and raised concerns amongst parents of children in the schools.

·         Although some small companies had lost contracts, there was a local company in Gwynedd which had also been awarded the contract and this type of statement in public documents by the Council was an insult to their professionalism and their opportunity to grow within this county.

Some points were raised by other members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

In accordance with the Notice of Motion received under Section 4.20 of the Constitution, Councillor Elwyn Edwards will propose as follows:-

“Following the Council’s decision on 18/3/16 to monitor and assess the Welsh language situation (from 2011) in the context of the Joint Local Development Plan, that this Council invites Anglesey Council to participate fully in the work.”

(b)  Submitted - the following notice of motion by Councillor Elwyn Edwards, in accordance with Section 4.20 of the Constitution and it was seconded:-

"Following the Council's decision on 18/3/16 to monitor and assess the Welsh language situation (from 2011) in the context of the Local Development Plan, that this Council invites Anglesey Council to participate fully in the work."

A member noted –

·         It was important to note completely clearly that implementing the decision of the extraordinary meeting of the Council was to endorse the Joint Local Development Plan process and this did not mean interfering in the statutory process or undermining it in any way.

·         Implementing the decision was not going against the legal position or the Council's constitutional position or changed anything in terms of the position of the statutory requirements.

·         Rather, implementing the decision would be an all-important and crucial addition to the process by gathering key evidence that would be a means of understanding what effect housing developments since 2011 (since the beginning of the lifespan of the Plan), have had on the Welsh language. 

·         Receiving this information was completely necessary as housing developments since 2011 had not been monitored or reviewed.  

·         That this decision had been made on 18 March and it was reasonable to invite Anglesey Council to do the same.

·         He supported the plan and suggested that the work commenced now.

The Cabinet Member for Planning noted that the mechanism was already in place to implement what had been requested and the work would commence fairly soon and, therefore, he welcomed the proposal.

RESOLVED following the Council's decision on 18/3/16 to monitor and assess the position of the Welsh language (from 2011) in the context of the Joint Local Development Plan, that this Council invites Anglesey Council to participate fully in the work."