Agenda item

To present information about the Department’s contribution to the Language Policy.

To accept the report and note the observations received.

The report was submitted by the Head of Environment Department, and he highlighted the following main points in brief:

He reported that the Supplementary Guidance of the Planning Policy gave detailed consideration to the Welsh language in order to promote it in Wales and beyond.

He drew attention to the work of the biodiversity, grounds and nature officers who organised walks for learners so that they can teach them about new terms in Welsh within the field.

He reported that 76 requests to change the name of a property had been received last year. He confirmed that 95% of these properties had retained or were now using the Welsh name. He added that the names of the properties falling into the other 5% were difficult to change, such as the names of companies and businesses. He explained that the legislation that granted requests to change the language on a place name dated back to 1925 and that considerations included checking whether there were similar names on nearby buildings, and suitability. He confirmed that applicants could not be forced to put Welsh names on their buildings, they could only be encouraged to use Welsh. He noted that considerations were being given to the need to tighten this legislation. Despite this, the department's officers had been successful in encouraging owners to use the Welsh language in the vast majority of cases.

He noted that more work needed to be completed to ensure that people did not put English names on their businesses. It was accepted that some regulations were in place in order to ensure that the Welsh language was prominent within businesses, but we need to do more promotion work to ensure that companies used the language. He drew attention to the fact that planning permission was required for any illuminated business sign. Consequently, language requirements stated that those signs must be bilingual in order for them to be approved.

In response to an enquiry on street names and the names of other locations in Welsh only, the Assistant Head of Environment Department confirmed that this was a matter for the whole of Wales to consider. The Language Adviser emphasised that work was being undertaken by the Council to investigate this matter and that discussions were being held to explore what regulations were possible. Because of the national nature of the issue, it was important to ensure that the Council shared good practice with other organisations to ensure that the Welsh language was being used, in the hope that regulations would be formed in the future.

It was confirmed that 91% of the department's staff who had completed the language self-assessment, met the designation for their job.  However, it was acknowledged that 111 members of staff in the department had not completed the self-assessment and it was thought that this was due to the waste and recycling service recently being moved from another department to the environment department. It was also noted that it was not easy for many staff to complete the self-assessment because they did not use computers in their front-line jobs. It was emphasised that ensuring that everyone completed the language self-assessment was a priority for the department's managers, and that the language self-assessment was included as part of an updated welcome pack for new staff.

It was explained that the recruitment of qualified officers with the required language skills had been a challenge for the Department over the last period. Nonetheless, the officers were proud of the fact that the Department had managed to appoint two professional trainees within planning as well as three trainees within public protection.

It was mentioned that the department had received complaints of concern regarding the use of place names on road closure notifications. It was confirmed that the department needed advice from the legal team in order to respond to these enquiries.

They discussed new opportunities to encourage use of the Welsh language within the department over the next period. Car charging points were cited as a particular example where users could be encouraged to use the Welsh terms for charging and fast charging (‘gwefru’ and ‘gwefru chwim’).

Members expressed their gratitude for the report.

RESOLVED

To accept the report and note the observations received.