Agenda item

To submit the verbal report of the Cabinet Member – The Welsh Language.

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.