Agenda item
To consider any
questions the appropriate notice for which have been given under Section 4.19
of the Constitution.
Minutes:
(The Cabinet Members' written responses to the questions had been
published in advance.)
(1) Question from
Councillor Richard Glyn Roberts
"What arrangements were made by the Education Department to
establish the exact number of Gwynedd children being educated through the
medium of English?"
Response - Cabinet
Member for Education, Councillor Beca Brown
Supplementary
Question from Councillor Richard Glyn Roberts
"Considering that there are no pupils
studying at least three Key Stage 4 subjects through the medium of Welsh, apart
from Welsh, in Ysgol Friars, and that the situation is similar in Ysgol Tywyn, and that there is an insignificant number of pupils
in other schools, Dyffryn Nantlle, for example, who
do not study at least three Key Stage 4 subjects through the medium of Welsh,
would it be fair to say that there are some hundreds of children in Gwynedd
secondary schools who can completely avoid Welsh-medium education, and that it
is likely that their education language will be English?"
Response - Cabinet Member for Education,
Councillor Beca Brown
"In terms of avoiding the Welsh language,
given that Welsh is something that goes beyond lessons and takes place in
pastoral periods, assemblies, sports etc. I believe that it is very difficult
for someone to avoid the Welsh language in any school in Gwynedd.
As we all know, we have two secondary schools in
the Transitional Category 3 in the county, and hard work is taking place there
in order to improve the provision in those schools. A Welsh Language Development Officer has been
employed in Ysgol Friars. I would draw
attention to the percentage that may be the most specific indicator we have in
terms of the number of children who can speak Welsh in Gwynedd, and 88% of
children aged between 5 and 15 can speak Welsh compared to 64% of the general
population, which shows the success of Welsh language education in the county
but, of course, there is a need to work with the schools noted and work across
the sector in general. This is why a new
Language Forum has been established in order to keep the WESP (Welsh in
Education Strategic Plan) on track, and why there is a Task and Finish Group
investigating the current provision across the whole secondary sector. Also, this is why I very much look forward to
seeing the findings of that investigation work, and to work with my fellow
councillors, the scrutinisers and the staff of all our schools on increasing
what is already an excellent percentage.
Of course, it is always possible to increase it, and I look forward to
working on that with everyone who wish for the same thing as each and every one
of us, namely to see more of the Welsh language again across Gwynedd
schools."
(2) Question from
Councillor Gruffydd Williams
"To what extent is it possible to delve
further into the Council’s housing register statistics and establish the
numbers who originate from Dwyfor, from Meirionnydd,
from Arfon, from counties adjoining Gwynedd, the numbers who speak Welsh and
the numbers who attended a school in Gwynedd?"
Response - Cabinet Member for Housing,
Councillor Craig ab Iago
"In addition to
what was noted in the written response, I would like to note that I understand
where the question is coming from. Many
councillors are concerned about the lack of control over who gets our
houses. I share those concerns. We are currently living in a housing
crisis. People tend to view our housing
stock as an investment or bolt-hole, therefore, I agree with you, but I would
refer you to the Housing Action Plan.
The department's motto, more or less, is 'housing local people in their
communities'. This is what we are trying
to do, and one of the things in the plan is the local lettings policy which has
moved the goal posts in terms of what is acceptable in our country. We are leading on it in Wales and emphasising
the local element. We are attempting to
house people in their communities. In my
opinion, which is its whole purpose, and this is why we are here. The new local lettings policy has just been
submitted before the scrutiny committee, therefore, as I understand, all of the
Council are happy with it."
Supplementary
Question from Councillor Gruffydd Williams
"Without us being able to delve further
into the Council's housing register statistics, how is it possible for us to
know that we are not providing for an invasion, rather than providing for a
real need among the indigenous population?
Response - Cabinet Member for Housing,
Councillor Craig ab Iago
"It is a local lettings policy, and you must have a local connection
now, more or less, to be given a house in Gwynedd. Of course, there are cases where we try to
help people who are escaping from domestic violence situations, for example,
but 96% or 98% of our social housing stock go to people who are local according
to our interpretation or definition of 'local'.
Therefore, I am confident that we are not doing what you say or suggest
we do. We are here to house local people
in their communities."
(3) Question from
Councillor Gwynfor Owen
"I'm sure the Leader of the Council feels so frustrated as I am in
the response of the UK Government as well as the Welsh Government to provide
solutions to the residents of Llanbedr and the area regarding the bypass and a
new road to the Airfield.
Can I ask what Cyngor Gwynedd plans to do now to try and mitigate the
impact of traffic on the lives of the residents of Llanbedr as well as ensuring
that the Council continues to attract quality jobs to the area?"
Response - The Leader, Councillor Dyfrig
Siencyn
"As the Councillor will know, this Council has been working
incredibly hard to ensure that Llanbedr and the wider area can benefit from
high value jobs that would come with developments at the nearby airfield site.
That of course includes securing a suitable access road to facilitate
development, and attached to that developing a new way to solve the problems of
significant traffic congestion that the villagers of Llanbedr have endured for
decades.
The Ardudwy Green Corridor bid offered a real
opportunity to bring significant benefit to a wide area of Meirionnydd. It
included new access to the airfield site which would also have addressed
traffic congestion issues in Llanbedr.
It would also have been an opportunity to
promote active travel and green travel, making it possible for people to walk
and cycle safely, improving access to transport and installing an electric car
charging service along the A496.
Therefore, the recent decision by the United
Kingdom Government not to support the Council's request for funding from the
Levelling Up fund was extremely disappointing.I fear
it underlines a lack of the government's understanding of the seriousness of
the situation.
This of course follows the decision by Wales'
Deputy Climate Change Minister to make a U-turn on a previous Welsh Government
commitment on a scheme that would have ensured access to the airfield and a new
road for Llanbedr.
Although we have not yet been successful in securing the funding needed,
we continue to seek a positive solution that will unlock the economic potential
of Llanbedr airfield, solve local traffic congestion problems, and encourage
sustainable travel options.
We will be in discussion with the Welsh Government and Transport for
Wales to consider how we can work together in the short term to try to improve
safety and the provision of active travel along the A496 between Llandecwyn and Barmouth.
Indeed, despite the Deputy Climate Change Minister's disappointing
announcement in 2021 not to support the original scheme, Council officers have
been continuing to discuss solutions that will facilitate access to Llanbedr
airfield.
A process that will assess options to secure access to the airfield, and
our officers will continue to try to work out a solution with Welsh Government
and Transport for Wales civil servants.
I am fully aware of the aspirations of residents in the area, and in
developing any solutions, I will ensure contact with the local community to
ensure that residents in the area are aware of the ongoing efforts.
I can assure you that these efforts will continue until an acceptable
solution is found for Llanbedr and the wider Ardudwy
area."
Supplementary
Question from Councillor Gwynfor Owen
"Is there any
truth in recent observations by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Lee
Waters, that Cyngor Gwynedd has refused to have a discussion with him?"
Response - The Leader, Councillor Dyfrig
Siencyn
"Thank you for
the opportunity for me to make a public correction to the unfounded allegations
of the Deputy Minister for Climate Change Lee Waters. I have had very heated discussions with the
Deputy Minister and he has made quite serious allegations. I have evidence of a number of meetings that
have been scheduled between Transport for Wales, and also some civil servants
from the Department of Mr Lee Waters. Therefore, I have asked him to retract
his words, but he has changed the meaning of what he says by stating that there
is no progress in those discussions, and dare I say that if there is no
progress, this is because that there is only one answer for Llanbedr, namely
having the appropriate access to the airfield, and having a bypass as
well. Therefore, there is a public call
from me today to the Deputy Minister to retract his words, and I can give him
clear evidence of the meetings that have been held between Government officers
and our officers.
(4) Question from
Councillor Gareth Tudor Jones
Before asking the question, the member noted:-
·
That a member of the public, Mr Ieuan Wyn, had attempted to submit a
question to the Council on behalf of Cylch yr Iaith, Cymdeithas yr Iaith and Dyfodol i’r Iaith, but that the Council's Constitution was unclear
in terms of how many days in advance it was possible to do so.
·
Section 4.17 of the Constitution noted 10 clear days, and that language
organisations had followed this and had submitted the question 12 days in
advance.
·
The Monitoring Officer had stated in the past few days that 10 clear
days meant 10 working days, and that he was given to understand that the
Monitoring Officer recognised that the Constitution was unclear in this regard.
·
He received a request from Mr Ieuan Wyn to ask the question on his
behalf, and although he was willing to do so, he wished to propose that the
standing orders were set aside so that Mr Ieuan Wyn, who was present in the
public gallery, could ask the question himself.
In response, the
Monitoring Officer noted:-
·
That the Constitution was clear in terms of the clear day and that he
had explained this in response to an enquiry about the existence of a timetable
and what that was exactly, when he had clearly stated that the request was out
of time.
·
He had never stated that the Constitution was unclear about this.
·
In terms of proposing that standing orders were set aside, the member
would have to highlight which standing order he wished to set aside, and to
what purpose, and the Council would have to be clear in terms of what they
would be voting on.
The member noted that
he wished to propose that standing order 4:17 was set aside.
In response, the
Monitoring Officer explained:-
·
That standing order 4:17 gave the right to the public to ask a question
at the Council if a notice had been provided no later than 10 clear days before
the day of the meeting.
·
The concept of a notice period was sound in the Constitution and was
operated consistently every time.
Without adhering to this order, questions could arrive at any time,
creating disorder and unfairness.
·
As standing order 4:17 permitted the public to ask a question, setting
that order aside entirely would waive this right, and the member was asked to
be much clearer in terms of what he wished to set aside.
·
The question had been
submitted by the member within the appropriate period to receive questions from
members, and the response had already been circulated. Therefore, the member had the right to ask
the question, to receive a response and to ask a supplementary question.
The member noted that
he remained of the opinion that the situation was unfair as the language
organisations had submitted the question in good time, but he noted that he
would withdraw his application and ask the question on their behalf.
"As you are aware, the Welsh Government has
published guidance on school categorisation according to the Welsh medium
provision. In its document, the Welsh
Government states as follows: 'One intention with the new categorisation system
is to encourage schools to increase their Welsh medium provision...and
facilitate the process for schools to move to the next category...so that
schools grow their Welsh medium provision.'
Does the Council believe that pupils in Gwynedd
secondary schools should receive less Welsh medium education than pupils at
designated Welsh schools in other counties?"
Response - Cabinet Member for Education,
Councillor Beca Brown
"It is interesting to be given an
opportunity to answer questions like these as it is an opportunity to compare
our situation with remaining Welsh counties, even the neighbouring counties,
and if you speak to language campaigners in other Welsh counties, including our
bordering county, you will hear that our situation in Gwynedd is the envy of
them. The Welsh schools you mention exist in a policy context that is
completely different to that of Gwynedd, where there is a language choice in
terms of the teaching medium, and consider that 80% of Cardiff education is
still in English despite the positive progress that has been seen there in
Welsh-medium education. It should be a
source of pride that our county offers Welsh-medium education indiscriminately
for every child, to ensure that each of them receive the cultural, social and
economic benefits of being able to speak Welsh."
Supplementary
Question from Councillor Gareth Tudor Jones
"At various
crucial periods in the recent history of our language, Cyngor Gwynedd has been
innovative and has led robustly and confidently. Therefore, why is the Welsh Government,
instead of Cyngor Gwynedd, calling for an increase in the Welsh-medium education
in our schools and motivating us to act?"
Response - Cabinet Member for Education,
Councillor Beca Brown
"The Welsh Government is not the only one
asking for progress, and this is why we have a piece of work, in a Language
Forum, in a Task and Finish Group and as a piece of internal work, to ascertain
what exactly is the provision in each school, as the picture of bilingual
education is more complex than someone would think. Then, without knowing where we are, we cannot
know for sure where we are headed and, of course, my personal aspiration and
our aspiration as a Department, as well as the desire of the Government, is to
see progress in Welsh education in Gwynedd.
Going back to the category, and a category is an
administrative matter in essence - it does not affect or does not change
anything in our policy and our innovative education policy here in
Gwynedd. What the Welsh Government has
done is set a percentage and category that takes as many schools as they can
along the journey of bilingualism and, although it does not fit Gwynedd
perfectly, and I would not argue with that at all, it does not affect us either
- we can make our own way as we have done for years. However, I think that what the Welsh Government
is doing is something that we should support, because if Welsh-medium education
increases across Wales in other counties, in counties that are close to us,
that is only a good thing for Gwynedd.
What benefits Wales benefits us here in Gwynedd, and vice versa, because
people move around our country and Gwynedd does not live in a bubble. I understand the purpose of the Government
attempting to take as many schools as they can along this journey so that we
can realise a similar situation to Gwynedd across Wales. Therefore, that is a slight context of the
category in this respect."
(5) Question from Councillor Dewi Jones
"There are
approximately 3,000 people on the housing register in Gwynedd, what is the
Council doing to try to improve this situation?"
Response - Cabinet Member for Housing,
Councillor Craig ab Iago
"You have received the written response but
I want to mention the positive elements, the elements I always mention. I will
run through the elements that I am so proud of:-
·
Tŷ Gwynedd - namely our scheme in the Housing
Action Plan. We are building new housing
for the first time in 30 years. We
currently have two sites - one in Morfa Nefyn and one
in Bangor, and the intention is to do more and more.
·
Purchasing homes on the
open market - We have already bought eight
private homes on the housing market.
Five are currently being processed and again, there is an intention to
have much more.
·
Housing leasing scheme - namely, private landlords who want to let a house to the Council to
accommodate people. We intend to have 19
this year.
·
Main Social Housing
Programme - Social housing is a solution to the problem of
3,000 people on the housing register. 173 have been built since the
commencement of the Housing Action Plan, 88 are currently being built and 113
are being earmarked for construction next year.
That attitude - what we can do - we will do it now. We will invest the money as we have been
doing. As a Council, we have invested
over £100,000 in the Housing Action Plan.
·
Empty housing - 104 of them have been brought back into use.
This will not answer our problems. It will not resolve the housing crisis -
there are 3,000 on the housing register, and we have not got 3,000 built homes
here. We know what the answer to this
is. We need more power from the Welsh
Government, we need more funding from the Welsh Government. We need to do this now in my opinion. We definitely need to resolve the planning
element because, whatever we do with housing, it will not make a different
unless we resolve the planning element.
The Government collaborates with us to some extent to do so but it is
not enough; however, in my opinion, the Housing Action Plan indicates that as a
Council, as the Plaid Cymru Group and as the Plaid Cymru Cabinet, we are
serious about resolving the problem, and doing what we can to resolve it. It also shows the value of the Council Tax
Premium. Second home owners will go from
being part of the problem to being part of the solution which, in my opinion,
is something to celebrate and the people paying the money should be proud of
the fact that we are using their money to house people who have no home at
all. It also shows how hard our staff
work. The Housing Action Plan is leading
in Wales. It has been written and is
being implemented by our staff in Cyngor Gwynedd. I am so proud of them. They have internalised
what we seek to do politically, and do it on a daily basis, therefore, I would
like to thank them. Is not everything we
do an answer to the problem? No, but if the Government gave us more power and
more funding, we would resolve the problem."
(6) Question from
Councillor Rhys Tudur
"We know that every secondary school in
Gwynedd, except two, fall into category 3 in terms of their Welsh medium
provision, a category defined by a baseline of a minimum of 60% of the children
undertaking at least 70% of their education through the medium of Welsh.
Last year, under the old categorisation system,
the majority of the schools were in a category with a higher baseline, with the
children undertaking at least 80% of their education through the medium of
Welsh.
To avoid a marked slippage in the Welsh medium
provision, are the Education Department and Cabinet prepared to create a
'Category 3-Gwynedd' policy in order to raise the baseline?"
Response - Cabinet Member for Education,
Councillor Beca Brown
"I would like to note again that this
categorisation system, which is an administrative system in a way, does not affect
or change anything in our requirements in Gwynedd, and this has been made
absolutely clear to our schools. The
baseline of the Welsh Government is irrelevant to us in Gwynedd as we are doing
better, and are aspiring to do even better again. Therefore, this is an
administrative change in essence, rather than some change to our baseline as a
county. Gwynedd implements its own
education language policy. Therefore, this is Welsh Government's change, which
is an administrative change, and is not going to affect what we do in
Gwynedd."
Supplementary Question from Councillor Rhys
Tudur
"The Council has a Gwynedd education
language policy but this is vague and only measures if children have the
ability in both languages. It does not
measure how many receive their education through the medium of Welsh, how many
are entirely able, confident and fluent in the language. Considering that setting
a baseline, such as the one in a category, would be the most certain way to
ensure that Welsh-medium provision does not fall behind, and that it is in
accordance with the ‘Cadernid Gwynedd (The Strength
of Gwynedd)’ motto in terms of the Welsh language, and given that the baseline
we have in the category has substantially reduced from one year to the other,
could the Cabinet Member not agree that there is a need to raise the baseline
for Gwynedd or by drawing up a Gwynedd category 3 policy, and that this happens
urgently, not within five years or in a year?"
Response - Cabinet Member for Education,
Councillor Beca Brown
"I agree that we must know exactly what the
provision in each school is and know exactly where we are at in order to know
where we are headed, and this is why there is a group investigating this, and
the councillor asking the question is a member of this group. I do not wish to prejudge or presume the
findings of that group, or to disrespect the work that you will undertake to
bring data, which I am sure will be very interesting, to me and to the
Department for us to determine the way forward from that point. Therefore, I do not see the purpose of
undertaking a piece of work and making a decision in advance before we receive
the results, and I very much look forward to seeing what the results will be
after the work is undertaken."
(7) Question from
Councillor John Pughe Roberts
"We understand that the Trading Standards
and Environmental Health Management
Department (Environment Department / Public Protection) note savings to reduce
costs for the Department and are cutting the out of hours service from April
2023. The out of hours service, has been provided by the Trading Standards and
Environmental Health Sub-Department every week, for over 10 years.
I would like to know, under the conditions of
the Employment Act, whether this can be done without making any ‘disturbance’
payments for the staff concerned and if there were any cases, i.e. food
poisoning, health and safety / accidents, animal health diseases (bird flu /
foot and mouth disease) and any animal welfare issue or a similar ‘Covid’
situation, there would be no one to provide cover overnight and on
weekends. I can only assume that the
Directors would need to be available to do this?
What is the legal
position?"
Response - Cabinet Member for the
Environment, Councillor Dafydd Meurig
"This is a saving that has been proposed by
the services and is one of many savings that are being proposed. Of course,
this has been proposed as a fairly painless proposal in general, and with that
we are talking about the impact on Gwynedd residents. We are talking about an expense of £25,000
for dealing with three urgent calls per year, therefore, I think that there
will be much more difficult cuts to undertake in future. However, in terms of what is happening to
these calls, of course the Council has emergency procedures, and I am sure that
the Council's senior officers would tell you that they already receive out of
hours calls, and do so without receiving additional payment."
(8) Question from
Councillor Llio Elenid Owen
"What is in
place in schools in terms of raising the awareness of children and young people
of the dangers of on-line content, and teaching them to think critically of the
content of social media and on-line spaces?
It is becoming increasingly apparent how
dangerous and influential some on-line figures are (influencers), particularly
those who spread racism and spread hatred towards women and the LGBTQ+
community.
How seriously is
Cyngor Gwynedd taking this danger to our young people, and what is being done
to help teachers tackle this?"
Response - Cabinet Member for Education,
Councillor Beca Brown
"I was very pleased to receive this
question as it is such an important field, and as a mother of a young daughter
and son, I know from experience what the challenges are as a result of the
toxic messages that come from some of the most popular influencers as they are
called. The health and well-being learning and experience field tackles this
field in a holistic manner and there are ready-made resources are available,
e.g. the On-line Hate document. The Youth Service also plays an important part
in all this through their work in schools and youth clubs, and the police also
offer a programme of activities in this exact field, and those resources can be
seen on the SchoolBeat website. Therefore, a great deal of good work is being
undertaken but it is a new field to a large extent, and it possibly requires a
new way of implementation."
Supplementary
Question from Councillor Llio Elenid Owen
"Given that this
is one of the great dangers that face our society, is there sufficient
collaboration and support by the police with schools to tackle this?
Response - Cabinet Member for Education,
Councillor Beca Brown
"On the matter
of the police, possibly on a broader scale than their work in schools alone, I
have thought for quite some time that hate against women needs to become a hate
crime, especially after witnessing the murders of women by men who knowingly
follow the 'Incel' or 'Involuntary Celibate' culture,
namely men who blame women for their relationship troubles amongst all kinds of
other things. Murders of these kind are
currently not viewed as a hate crime against an oppressed group.
Also, I think that
what the member is talking about falls neatly into the field of Relationships
and Sexuality Education, and this is exactly why, or one of the many reasons, I
was so pleased to stand in this chamber back in August supporting this new code
of education. I think that the sexuality and gender elements may have received
disproportionate attention in the press due to the strange obsession, possibly,
of some campaigners with those elements, but the relationship element is very
important in this code and goes to the heart of the member's question, and I
look forward to seeing this code empowering teachers as they tackle challenges
and the type of toxic influences we see.
Also, may I quickly
note, and possibly drown out some of the voices referred to by the member, that
it would be great to see more voices having an influence by providing positive
messages to young people, e.g. if I can draw attention to a campaign launched yesterday
by Project 15 asking for 15 second inspiring videos. Therefore, this is a
campaign I very much support and there is nothing better than drowning out the
poison of some of those voices and bringing new positive voices in their place,
and I would encourage everyone to share that campaign so that we can fill our
social media sites with positive, inclusive and Welsh messages."
Supporting documents:
PDF 250 KB