Cabinet Members:
Councillor Gareth Griffith Environment Department
Councillor Catrin Wager Highways and Municipal Department and the Consultancy Department
To consider the report
Minutes:
A report was presented providing details of savings proposals that
would contribute to the potential financial gap in the 2020/21 budget. The
Members were reminded that the annual grant received
by the Welsh Government had not been sufficient for the last 12 years, and this
had subsequently led to a situation where the Council had to plan to plug the
financial gap. For 2020/21 it had been resolved to
plan for a £2m gap and ask all the departments to find their contribution
towards this amount. The Committee was asked to
consider the proposals of the Environment Department, the Highways and
Municipal Department and the Consultancy Department together with their
implications.
The Cabinet Members and the Heads of
Departments elaborated on the content of the report, and responded to questions
/ observations from the Members. The Cabinet Members thanked the Departments
for finding further savings that would not impact
directly on the residents of Gwynedd.
The Savings of the Consultancy Department
The committee welcomed the practice of
increasing the resources within Gwynedd Consultancy Units to enable the
Department to increase income which as a result would
keep people employed in high-skilled jobs within the County through the medium
of Welsh.
The Savings of the Highways and Municipal
Department
In response to a suggestion regarding
reducing / cutting down on external contracting costs so that smaller / local
companies could compete for the work (below the threshold) it was accepted that
more could be done to keep the benefit local and provide opportunities for
local businesses to bid for the work.
In response to a request for information
about the cost and arrangements for commercial waste, it was
explained that the Department served over 2,000 businesses across
Gwynedd by providing a unique offer to recycle or dispose of their residual
waste. The service would sort out waste that could be recycled in Parc Adfer in the Deeside
Enterprise Zone. It was added that this gave the
Department the opportunity to improve the service by attracting and encouraging
more companies to stay. It was also noted that a new
act would be emerging which would require Local Authorities to recycle more,
and the current arrangement of recycling commercial waste would be advantageous
for Gwynedd. The aim was to offer a green / responsible service and look to
develop this service further.
The Savings of
the Environment Department
In response to the sentence
which read 'the impact on residents will be reduced through closer
collaboration with the Highways and Municipal Department', and that this should
be the natural way of working regardless, it was noted that the Departments
were conducting cross-departmental discussions to try to identify opportunities
to collaborate within common areas so as to avoid duplication of work.
General observations:
·
Consider
making savings by using local consultants rather than external consultants
·
Impose a fine for breaching planning conditions
– this was an opportunity to generate income.
RESOLVED to accept the report
and approve the departments' proposals to meet their share of the relevant
savings.
Supporting documents: