Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

Councillors Craig ab Iago, Elwyn Edwards, Alan Jones Evans, Charles Jones, Eric Merfyn Jones and Sion Jones.

To receive any declaration of personal interest

No declarations of personal interest were received from any members present.

To consider the report of the Democratic Services Manager (and Language)  (attached).

Submitted – the report of the Democratic (and Language) Service Manager, providing a summary of the Compliance Notice and the main points that were requested to be discussed and responded to by the committee.

It was noted that there would be consultation with the Management Group and the Corporate Management Team prior to the Cabinet Member’s formal response to the consultation on behalf of the Council.

During the discussion the following observations were noted by members on the contents of the standards:-

1.       Delivering Services (1-87)

·         Standards 2, 3, 21, 28, 32, 72 – The principle of delivering standards as needed rather than according to choice was a basic principle and it should be a principle throughout the whole of Wales.  If a choice was given, people tended to state that they had no preference and this could result in a reduction in the use of the Welsh language.   

·         Standard Number 12 – It was suggested that Welsh should be placed first when advertising telephone numbers, helplines or call centre services.

·         Standard 30 - The Council provided simultaneous translation at every public meeting that was held and the Welsh language has been normalised to such a degree that the public were completely aware that it was possible for them to speak Welsh at public meetings held by the Council.

·         Standard Number 49 – It was not usual for this Council to produce a separate Welsh and English version of a document.

·         Standards 67-68 - In accordance with the Council’s Welsh Language Scheme, all staff members in receptions were completely bilingual.  Consequently, staff did not wear badges to show that a Welsh language service was available and there were no signs stating that people were welcome to use the Welsh language in the reception.  Once again, it was arguable that the Council’s policy as it stood was more than sufficient for the requirements.

·         General -  

·         The Council’s Language Scheme already went beyond the majority of these standards.   It had to be ensured that the wording of the standards did not dilute the Language Scheme and that they reflected the situation that had developed naturally in Gwynedd over the years by practice and procedures.

·         The reorganisation of Local Authorities arrangements and the possible impact of this on compliance with the Standards had to be borne in mind in due course.

2.       Forming a Policy (88-97)

·         The fact that the Council formed policies which did not treat the Welsh language less favourably than English as a matter of course was welcomed but it was agreed that formalising the procedure by establishing a structure to prove that full consideration had been given to the Welsh language would be a way of promoting this aspect in a positive manner.

·         It was not the wish to create additional paper work but rather a system could be incorporated to evidence this in the current procedure of submitting policies to the Cabinet.

3.       Implementation (98-144)

·         The standards should allow this Council to operate in accordance with its Language  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.