Agenda item

Present the initial results of the consultation from the Research and Analytics service, and invite comments from members about the potential response of the Language and Scrutiny Unit in formulatin the final strategy.

To accept the report, and the information presented in Appendix 1, and to note the observations received.

The Language Adviser presented the report. She referred briefly to the following main points: 

Members were reminded that the Welsh Language Standards (Welsh Language Measure)  (Wales) 2011, placed a requirement upon the Council to produce a five-year strategy noting how the Council intended to promote and facilitate the use of the Welsh language within the county. It was noted that the Council should explain how these actions would contribute to the national Welsh 2050 objective to increase the number of Welsh speakers.

It was explained that the period of the existing promotion strategy would end in October 2023.  It was noted that the review period had commenced since the beginning of 2023 and that discussion sessions had been held with Cabinet members, Language Committee members and members of the Gwynedd Language Forum, in order to gain their input, prior to a consultation period on the draft strategy between 17 April and 21 May 2023.

It was reported that 159 electronic responses and one letter had been received by the service. There was a good cross-section from all parts of the County, with the majority of respondents being individuals between 35 and 74 years old. It was confirmed that there were only three responses from people under the age of 34, and it was emphasised that the service carefully considered how they would gather the views of this group within the community in the future.

It was explained that 72.3% of the respondents agreed with the intention to focus on increasing opportunities for people to use the Welsh language. This was a common theme in a number of responses in order to enable people to increase confidence when speaking Welsh.

It was confirmed that consideration would be given to making changes or adaptations to the final strategy in order to respond to some of the comments in the consultation. Members were informed that the final draft would be shared with internal departments in order to identify work streams that would address the objectives and produce an initial work programme.

It was hoped to submit the final draft of the strategy to the Cabinet in October 2023.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. During the discussion, the following matter was raised:

·       The number of responses to the consultation were low, probably as the Council had a number of other consultations underway at the same time. It was agreed that there was a need to consider new methods of sharing information, to ensure that the feedback received was a fair reflection of the views of the public, although it was acknowledged that there were currently challenges in relation to holding consultations – such as the challenge of using social media and the challenge of receiving responses from a range of different ages.

·       It was confirmed that the service had not yet researched the future impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the Welsh language. It was emphasised that this technology had developed quickly and that research would be undertaken during the lifespan of this strategy.

·       It was emphasised that the Council had a duty to consider all the responses to the consultation. It was agreed that only a minority of the responses were negative, but it was noted that officers had to be aware of these observations when proceeding to produce a final draft.

Gratitude was expressed for the report.

RESOLVED

To accept the report, and the information presented in Appendix 1, and to note the observations received.