To consider any questions the appropriate notice for which
have been given under Section
4.19 of the Constitution.
Minutes:
(1) Question by Councillor Aeron Jones
"What does the Council propose to do about the caravans and vans
which park overnight on the beaches at Dinas Dinlle, on land at y Foryd, where
'No Overnight Parking' signs have been erected, but are being ignored by
visitors?"
Response by the Cabinet Member for Economic
Development, Councillor Ioan Thomas (and also on behalf of the Cabinet Member
for the Environment, Councillor Dafydd Meurig).
(The Cabinet Member's
written response to the original question had been distributed to the members
in advance).
"We do not
encourage visitors to use these sites for overnight parking. Practically, it is difficult for the Council
to take immediate enforcement action to remove vehicles, due to the timescales
involved in serving notices, and then presenting an application for a
possession order in the local county court.
Supplementary
question by Councillor Aeron Jones.
"How much
assurance can the Cabinet Member give that the owners of these vans do not pour
their chemical toilet waste and waste water in these spots and that they will
be penalised for overnight parking in future?"
Response by the Cabinet Member for Economic
Development, Councillor Ioan Thomas.
"I will
discuss with the Cabinet Member for the Environment and the relevant officers
to provide a full answer in due course, but I understand your concerns."
(2) Question
from Councillor Sion Jones
"How will the
Leader ensure equality and opportunities to work for Gwynedd Council,
particularly for women?"
Response by the Leader, Councillor Dyfrig Siencyn.
(The Leader's written
response to the original question had been distributed to the members in
advance).
"Clearly, everyone
is in agreement here that we want to promote equality across either sex or any
boundaries or race, etc., and our policies reflect this. The Council is
currently undertaking work to seek to identify opportunities to promote the
role of women within the Council and, therefore, we are very aware that things
need to be improved, as in several fields. The Deputy Leader, who is
responsible for equality and human resources, will be involved with this work
and will report on progress and the developments with the questionnaires, etc.,
that we have developed recently. She has also drawn my attention to the
cross-party local government commission which looks at the role of women in
local government and she will be very eager to contribute to that discussion and
to learn from any recommendations it may have."
A supplementary
question by Councillor Sion Jones.
"Of the 10
Cabinet Members, how many are men and how many are women?"
Response by the Leader, Councillor Dyfrig Siencyn.
"There is one
woman, namely the Deputy Leader, and nine men. I am very pleased of my party's
record where women are in question. I have a Deputy Leader who is a woman; we
have a female Chair of the Council and a female Vice-chair of the Council. We
have a female Assembly Member in Arfon. We have a female Member of Parliament in Dwyfor / Meirionnydd, and not only that, but she is the
Leader of Plaid in Westminster. Our party's Leader is a woman. Where is the Labour Party's record compared
with Plaid Cymru's excellent record in this field? I
am surprised that he is asking the question, but there is a serious aspect to
this. Being a Cabinet Member is not easy for everyone. It requires a
more-or-less full-time commitment and that, of course, restricts people's
ability to commit to the work, particularly women. I am very aware of this from
experience in the last term of working with Mandy Williams-Davies, who was a
busy mother and worked extremely hard as a Cabinet Member while trying to
support her family at the same time. I believe that we do have room to improve,
and I look forward to seeing what the findings of the cross-party commission
are because I believe that we need to give more support to young families, to
young women and indeed to pay people a fair salary for working on the Cabinet,
which is also a barrier for people when committing to the Cabinet's work.
Therefore, I very much look forward to working with Councillor Sion Jones to
develop the role of women in the Council. Of course, he does not have a woman
in his group even, so that is a problem for him straight away. We are in
agreement that we need to promote the role of women and I commit to doing my
best to do so. One step I will be taking will be asking women to shadow some of
the Cabinet's work so that we can offer roles to them in the future."