To submit
the verbal report of the Cabinet Member – The Welsh Language.
Minutes:
Submitted – the verbal report of the Cabinet Member -
Welsh Language, detailing recent developments in the field, including:-
·
The conditional
confirmation of the success of the grant to promote the use of the Welsh
language.
·
The work of
establishing the new language centre in Bangor.
·
A conference on 22
January in Llanrwst to launch the Language Charter
across the north Wales counties.
·
A conference on 13
January organised by Welsh Government as part of the consultation on a
follow-on strategic framework on the More than Just Words scheme.
·
Welsh Government
consultation on proposed changes to the Technical Advice Note (TAN) 20 in
relation to Planning and the Welsh language.
·
The intention to
build a relationship with Dr Rhian Hodges and Dr Cynog
Prys from Bangor University, who specialise in
linguistic policy and planning.
·
Discussions on the
Language Standards and their impact on the Council's Language Policy.
·
The intention to
submit the recommendations of the Language Investigation - The Use of the Welsh
Language at External Meetings to the Cabinet on 19 January for adoption and
implementation.
The following matters were discussed:-
(A) TAN 20 Consultation
The Senior Manager – Democracy and Delivery noted:-
·
That the Planning
Department intended to arrange a seminar for members on the afternoon of 8
March in order to give members of the Communities Scrutiny Committee, this
committee and others an opportunity to influence the national guidance by
contributing their observations on the proposed changes.
·
In addition, that
local guidance was being developed and that the Cabinet Member had expressed
his intention to discuss the local guidance with the Communities Scrutiny
Committee and this committee.
It was agreed, for ease, to circulate a link to the
existing TAN 20 on the Welsh Government website to committee members.
(B) Collaboration with Bangor University
It was asked whether it would be possible to invite
experts on linguistic policy and planning to a meeting of the Language
Committee. The Cabinet Member replied by
saying that further discussions were needed with the University first of all to
sift through academic material to see what would be relevant to the Council and
that it would be possible to come back to the Language Committee after
developing the discussion further.
(C) Place Names
The Senior Manager – Democracy and Delivery noted:-
·
As a result of the
decision at the previous meeting to press for the inclusion of a clause
regarding the Welsh language in the Historic Environment Bill, a response was
received by the Chair of the committee in the Senedd which discussed the bill
stating that the bill had been amended, in November 2015, to include a section
which required Welsh Ministers to create and maintain a list of historic place
names in Wales (namely the new section 33 in the Bill).
·
That the Bill had
also been amended to make it a requirement for Historic Environment Records
(which would be prepared by local planning authorities) to provide a method of
obtaining the details of every historic place name in the area of that
authority which had been included in the list which would be created and
maintained by Welsh Ministers.
During the discussion:-
·
It was agreed to wait
and see what the guidance would state and consider at that time how this
Council and the local communities and the local parish councils could
contribute to the process.
·
A member referred to
the unwillingness of Snowdonia Active
to correspond through the medium of Welsh and it was asked whether it would be
possible to persuade them. The Senior Manager – Democracy and Delivery asked
the member to send the relevant details to the officers, but the Cabinet Member
warned that he could not see how they could be forced to do so as they were a
private company. The need to support companies to be bilingual was emphasised,
rather than finger-pointing. In response, the Cabinet Member explained that
this was a fundamental part of the work of Hunaniaith
and the Language Development Officer elaborated on the work of advising the
business sector and noted that the outdoor sector was a difficult field as it
served many customers from outside Wales.
·
It was noted that a grant could be claimed from the Language Board in the
past to have Welsh-language signage for businesses and vans and the Senior
Manager – Democracy and Delivery noted that the next language investigation
would look at how visual the Welsh language was and the Council's influence to
that end.
RESOLVED to note the
content of the report.