Agenda item

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

The Leader, Councillor Dyfrig Siencyn, submitted a report that had been considered by the Cabinet at its meeting on 17 December 2019, seeking approval to the draft response which had been prepared on behalf of the Council to the Consultation on the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Bill - November 2019.

It was noted that the Cabinet had approved the draft response to be submitted to the Full Council for approval.

During the discussion the following matters were raised by individual members:

·         There was agreement with the observation that another tier of government was unnecessary, and that voluntary collaboration was the way forward.

·         It was noted that the second bullet point in the box "PART 1 - ELECTIONS" in paragraph 11 of the response was vague, as it firstly referred to supporting the concept of using a single transferable voting system, however it then stated that this Council preferred one-member wards.  To this end, it was suggested that this paragraph be amended to note that the Council supported the concept of using a single transferable voting system; however, if the first past the post system was kept, that the Council supported one-member wards as this provided the strongest connection with the community. In response, it was noted that the message transferred to the Boundary Commission was that this Council preferred one-member wards.  Should the voting method continue as it was, this is what the Council would support, and the response could be amended to reflect this.

·         It was noted that the Council was still awaiting to hear back from the Boundary Commission after submitting the response to its proposals, and there remained a lack of clarity in relation to the Bangor wards and some areas of the Llŷn Peninsula.  In response, it was noted that the matter was still in the hands of the Minister.  It was also explained that if the Bill was legislated upon before the next County Council elections, and consequently the number of voters increased to include young people aged 16 and 17, this could change, regardless of the considerations of the Boundary Commission.  It was further noted that the Bill provided for one-member wards, and should this be legislated upon, it was likely that the proposals of the Commission would need to be revisited, as they included two-member wards and were therefore not in-keeping with the Act.  On this basis, it was not believed that any benefit would come from requesting an early decision from the Minister on the response to the Commission's proposals, because the new legislation, in due course, could overturn some of the issues that the Council did not agree with in the proposals of the Boundary Commission.  It was further noted that it was technically possible to have a single transferable voting system in one-member wards as well, although this would not fulfil the aim of the system, namely to reflect the percentage of people who voted for each party.

·         It was noted that a single transferable voting system in one-member system would not be particularly contributory, and 3-4 member wards would be required for it to be truly contributory. In response, it was explained that the single transferable voting system in one-member wards ultimately ensured that the majority of the constituents in that ward supported the person being elected.  However, it was acknowledged that if a party gained a particular percentage of the vote throughout the whole of Gwynedd, this would not ensure that they had the same percentage of seats on the Council.  For this to happen, multi-member wards would be required. It was suggested that this needed to be examined further, and to amend it if required in order to ensure consistency in the responses.

·         Support was expressed to the draft response, subject to the advice given as this affected various wards in various areas.

·         It was suggested that larger sized wards were required, with a higher salary so that people would fulfil the work on a full-time basis.

RESOLVED

(a)  To approve the draft response to the consultation on the Bill.

(b)  To delegate the right to the Leader to respond on behalf of the Council, and adapt the draft document to reflect the observations of the Council.