Agenda, decisions and minutes

To elect Chair for 2024-2025.

To elect Councillor Annwen Hughes as Chair of the Committee for the year 2024/25.

RESOLVED to elect Councillor Annwen Hughes as Chair of the Committee for the year 2024/25.

To elect Vice-chair for 2024-2025.

To elect Councillor Llio Elenid Owen as Vice-chair of the Committee for the year 2024/25.

RESOLVED to elect Councillor Llio Elenid Owen as Vice-chair of the Committee for the year 2024/25.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors Kim Jones, Linda Morgan and Peter Thomas.

To receive any declaration of personal interest.

There were no declarations of personal interest.

To note any items that are a matter of urgency in the view of the Chairman for consideration.

None to note.

The Chairman shall propose that the minutes of the meeting of this Committee, held on 18 April be signed as a true record. 

The Chair signed the minutes of the previous meeting of this committee which took place on 18 April 2024, as a true record.

To scrutinise the representations received during the public engagement period and the Council’s response to them.

(i)    To accept the report and recommend that the Cabinet confirm the Article 4 Direction.

(ii)  To request that the Cabinet Member for the Environment conveys the observations submitted during the discussion to the Cabinet. ⁠ ⁠

The report was presented by the Cabinet Member for the Environment, the Assistant Head of Environment Department and the Planning Policy Unit Team Leader.

Members were reminded that the Council needed to undertake a four-step process in its effort to introduce the Article 4 Direction within the Gwynedd Local Planning Authority Area. It was noted that the first step was to issue a Notice of the Justification Paper on the Introduction of the Article 4 Direction. It was reported that the second step of the process was to hold a public engagement period. It was explained that the consultation had been held in August 2023 for a six-week period and included questionnaires, corresponding with 52,000 houses and a bespoke questionnaire on the Council's website. The service was acknowledged for securing a consultation period that was double the statutory requirement. ⁠The Department was praised for attracting so many responses to the consultation, and encouraged to share the good practice of their experience with other Council departments as they undertook public consultations in the future. Attention was drawn to the fact that very few young people had responded to the consultation, and it was acknowledged that engaging young people to respond to consultations was a challenge that the Council faced.

It was reported that the Council had now reached the third stage in the process of introducing the direction as it considered the responses to the consultation period. It was confirmed that the service had received 3902 responses. It was explained that the Council had allocated its responses to representations submitted to the consultation into themes and sub-themes within the report. It was elaborated that no additional information had been found that justified not confirming the Article Direction based on an assessment of the responses to the representations that had been submitted following the public engagement period, consideration of the evidence contained in the Article 4 justification paper and further research undertaken in response to some of the representations submitted to the consultation.

Consideration was given to the Council's ability to implement the direction if it was introduced. It was considered whether one centralised method of implementation and enforcement would be effective in Gwynedd. It was noted that the Council did not currently have much control over matters relating to changing the use class of dwellings and therefore the importance of robust intervention was emphasised to protect the housing stock while also protecting communities and the housing needs seen in various communities across the County. Due to this, it was confirmed that the service had completed detailed research on suitable methods of establishing financial intervention, planning, registrations and licensing processes and it was confirmed that these required various procedures rather than one centralised system in order to deal with situations adequately. It was emphasised that the direction focused on the use of the property and any change of use, not its ownership and therefore individuals would not have to receive planning permission when buying houses.

It was recognised that the Council had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To provide an update on the ash dieback survey and treatment programme and on the team’s activities in general.

(i)             To accept the report, noting the observations made during the discussion.⁠

(ii)            That the Committee consider prioritising the matter for scrutiny during 2025/26.

The report was presented by the Cabinet Member for Highways, Engineering and YGC, and the Assistant Head of the Department.

⁠Two errors were cited in the Report, correcting that 1550 high-risk trees had been felled or pruned to date compared to the figure of 710 trees as set out in paragraph 3.4 of the Report. It was further noted that second-hand evidence suggested that ash dieback disease posed less risk as time went by, in relation to the information presented at the beginning of paragraph 5.1 of the Report.

It was explained that ash dieback disease had spread to Wales since a number of years, and it had been estimated that 80% of ash trees would be adversely affected by it. It was confirmed that a team had been established in the department to deal with the challenges it caused. It was emphasised that responding to the disease was a priority on the Council's corporate risk register. It was detailed that the Council had funded an initial inspection in 2020 to see the impact of the disease in the area on the Council's tree stock.  It was acknowledged that there was a high risk as many trees had already been infected. As a result, a dedicated specialist team had been appointed to investigate the infection on the Council's roads and land.

It was reported that one of the main roles of the team was to carry out checks of the Council's tree stock on the County's roads and land. It was noted that the team carried out this work itself on occasion but also used specialist inspectors to ensure that all areas received inspections in a timely manner, emphasising that no external inspectors took action on infected trees. This was confirmed as the arrangement because the Department was responsible for approximately 3,000km of roads as well as other lands. It was explained in detail that the Department had developed a prioritisation system for carrying out inspections ensuring that the highest priority was given to ash trees that were near schools, roads, cemeteries, parks and similar locations. The team was noted as being responsible for dealing with the trees if inspections identified them as infected. It was confirmed that these would be put on the team's programme of work ensuring that the most serious cases were prioritised.

An update was shared that the Department had commissioned Gwynedd Consultancy to develop the use of drones to carry out inspections, as they could work at a much greater range than workers on foot. It was noted that results were currently very satisfactory and the hope was that this would be a method that would be used consistently to carry out tree inspections. It was elaborated that the team had been in contact with Coleg Glynllifon and pupils there had been trained at the same time as the team on the new technological methods of inspecting for the infection.

It was emphasised that the department did not fell the trees once they were infected.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To present the Committee’s draft work programme for 2024/25 for adoption.

The Communities Scrutiny Committee’s Work Programme for 2024/25 was adopted.

The report was presented by the Scrutiny Advisor. Members were reminded that they had considered potential items to be scrutinised for 2024/25 at the Committee's annual workshop held on 29 April 2024. It was elaborated that members had been asked to respond to an on-line question in terms of their five main priorities from the list of possible items provided before the workshop. It was confirmed that the main priorities that emerged from the responses to the question were:

1          Waste Collection and Recycling Services

2          Developments in the field of Public Transport

=          New Local Development Plan - Strategic Options, Vision and Objectives

=          Climate and Nature Emergency Plan: Annual Report 2023/24

⁠3         Introduce public charging points for electric vehicles

=          Planning and Welsh-speaking Communities

It was added that the Committee had a role in scrutinising the work of the Gwynedd and Anglesey Public Services Board with an understanding that the work of the Board was scrutinised twice a year. It was concluded that a copy of the Board's Annual Report for 2023/24 should be shared with members but not formally scrutinised at a Committee meeting. It was confirmed that the item 'Gwynedd and Anglesey Public Services Board Progress Report' had been scheduled for the January meeting.

It was noted that the 'Streetscene Service' item had been identified as an agenda item during 2025/26.

It was reminded that the scrutiny forward programme was a live programme which would be reviewed regularly during the year to ensure that the correct matters were addressed. It was stated that consideration was given to prioritising matters that would arise during the year, such as matters from performance challenge meetings and items on the Cabinet's forward programme.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

RESOLVED

The Communities Scrutiny Committee’s Work Programme for 2024/25 was adopted.