Agenda item

To submit the report of the Head of Corporate Support  (attached).

The Leader submitted a report which recommended that the Council approve the document as a balanced, fair and accurate reflection of the Council’s performance in 2015/16, and to adopt the report.

The Leader thanked the Chief Executive and the team of officers involved with the work.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions or make observations.  During the discussion, the following main matters were highlighted:-

·         The proprietorial rights in England to turn empty farm buildings into permanent dwellings were referred to and an inquiry made into the possibility of having the same rights in Wales.  In response, the Leader noted that the former minister, Jane Davidson, had taken legislation through the Assembly at the time to make it easer for developments, such as residential dwellings, to take place on farms.  He suggested that he could undertake some work jointly with the Cabinet Member for Development to see whether that legislation had created opportunities, and if not, this could be submitted to Government as evidence.

·         The Council was congratulated on producing a user friendly report, using images to highlight facts.

·         Referring to the Opinion of the Residents' Panel (page 21 in the agenda), the importance of concentrating on the negative was emphasised (e.g. the 17% who are of the opinion that the Council does not meet their needs, rather than the 83% who believe the opposite) using any complaints as a resource for improving the service, in accordance with the culture of Ffordd Gwynedd.

·         Referring to National Strategic Measures EDU/002i (the percentage of all pupils (including those in local authority care)... who are leaving compulsory education, training or work based learning, without a recognised external qualification) and EDU/002ii (the percentage of pupils in local authority care,... who leave compulsory education, training or work based learning, without a recognised external qualification) (page 41 in the agenda), it was noted that it would be beneficial to obtain a comparative figure in future in order to see whether the situation is deteriorating across the range of all pupils or this group only.

·         In response to a query about the impact that losing European funding would have on the Council's budget, it was noted that Gwynedd Council had created an investment of £300,000,000 as a result of European funds over the years in the form or core / match funding or private sector investment and that there was a 'danger' that the county would never see such sums again.  There was mention that regions such as north west Wales and the Valleys, who had been in receipt of this core funding, would neither be considered nor be given special designation and that these areas were in need of funds that corresponded to that which Objective One and Convergence funds provided.  The question was raised as to what the councillors could do to help the Council.  In response, the Leader noted that he intended to write to the leader of the Wales Local Government Association who sits on a committee set up by the First Minister of Wales, requesting that the representative submit a letter to that committee.  A letter could also be written to the Prime Minister and to the Secretary of State for Wales and his Vice-secretary.  Councillors could also raise awareness of this within their communities, and if correspondence was shared with members, this could form the basis of letters from town councils, groups of community councils, organisations etc.  He noted further that he would consider the best way of harnessing this and of including an element of collaboration across the board so that the message was completely clear.

·         An observation was made that the percentage of those questioned (page 22 of the agenda) stood at around 1% of the population of Gwynedd and the question was posed as to whether this figure would likely be increased.  An enquiry was also made as to the cross-section of men / women and the age of those questioned.  In response, the Leader explained that it was the Gwynedd Residents Panel who formed the basis of this questionnaire and the opinion thereupon.  He added that research could be conducted into ways of extending the questionnaire on the Performance Report, especially over the internet and twitter, going after specific cohorts, such as young people, as was done with the consultation on Her Gwynedd.

·         Concern was expressed about the increasing tendency to remove condition 106 agreements at this Council and at the National Park Authority.  In response, the Leader noted that, in order to prevent people from succeeding at appeal, the condition had to be robust in the first place.  He added that the Communities Scrutiny Committee had been looking at the 106 conditions and on affordable houses and had concluded that the system worked quite well. 

·         Schools' staff and the Department of Education were thanked for the great steps taken to improve the standards of education in the schools and reference was made to specific examples of that success, such as the 13.5% improvement in the TL2+ since 2012 and the improvements in pupil attendance.  The £56m investment in buildings was also referred to and it was noted that an open day would be held for all members of the new Ysgol Hafod Lon in Penrhyndeudraeth on Saturday, 19 December.

          RESOLVED to approve the report as a balanced, fair and accurate reflection of the Council’s performance in 2015/16, and to adopt the report.