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Councillors Mrs.B.Burns, J. Byast, W.J.Chorlton,
J.M.Davies,
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P. J. Dunning, E. G. Davies, J. A.. Edwards, K.
Evans, C. Ll. Everett, P. M. Fowlie, D. R. Hadley, D. R. Hughes,
Fflur M. Hughes,R. Ll. Hughes, W. I. Hughes, G. O. Jones, H. E.
Jones, J. A. Jones, O. G. Jones, A. M. Jones, T. H. Jones, B. Owen,
R. L. Owen, R. G. Parry, OBE, D. A. Lewis Roberts, G. W. Roberts,
OBE, J. A. Roberts, John Roberts, W. T. Roberts, P. S. Rogers,
J.Rowlands, E.Schofield, H. Noel Thomas, H. W. Thomas,
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K. Thomas, John Williams, W. J. Williams.
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Corporate Director (Finance)
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Corporate Director (Planning & Evironment)
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Corporate Director (Housing & Social
Services)
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Corporate Director (Highways, Transportation &
Property)
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Corporate Director (Education and Leisure)
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Director of Legal Services / Monitoring Officer
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Head of Service (Corporate Services)
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Committee Services Manager
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R. Ll. Jones, G. O. Parry, M.B.E., G. A.
Roberts
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Councillor Byast thanked the Members for their confidence
in him and expressed his intention to co-operate with and support
the newly elected Chairperson.
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The Chair referred to the loss of Alderman John Lazarus
Williams, 79 of Llanfairpwll on Sunday last. On behalf of the
Council he extended his deepest sympathy to his wife and three
daughters.
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Councillor John Arwel Edwards, as local member, paid
tribute to Mr.Williams. Mr. Williams had never been a member of the
Isle of Anglesey County Council but had represented Llanfairpwll
Community Council for most of the existence of the old Gwynedd
County Council. He had been a County Councillor of the highest
calibre and had made a very special contribution to Education. He
had been more than a successful County Councillor, he had been a
great Welshman. His contribution to ensuring that the Welsh
language was used in all aspects of life was immeasurable and his
contribution was great to the political life of Wales. As was said
in the Herald last week, losing ‘JL’ was like losing a
part of Wales itself. On behalf of the County Council he extended
his sincerest condolences to his family.
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The Chairperson also paid his respects to the family of
Councillor G.O.Parry,MBE, upon the loss of his brother-in-law whose
funeral was being held today.
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Members and officers stood in silent tribute as a mark of
their respect.
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The Chairperson also took the opportunity of
congratulating those who were successful at the recently held Urdd
Eisteddfod on Anglesey. Congratulations were extended to Lee
Roberts, a pupil at Llangefni Secondary School, who had been chosen
to represent Wales at the junior coarse fishing championships of
the world in Croatia this July.
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Congratulations were extended to all those members
re-elected following the recent local government elections. A warm
welcome was also extended to the 9 new members of the Council. The
Chairperson extended his appreciation to former Councillors
D.D.Evans, Rhian Medi, W.Emyr Jones and T.Lloyd Hughes for their
dedicated years of service to this Council and wished them well for
the future.
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RESOLVED to elect Councillor W.J. Williams as Leader
of the Council.
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5 DEPUTY LEADER OF THE
COUNCIL
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RESOLVED to elect
Councillor G.W. Roberts O.B.E., as Deputy Leader of the
Council.
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6
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
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Declarations of interest were received from the following
members:-
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Councillor Bob Parry OBE declared an interest in respect
of any item of business on the Agenda which might relate to the
employment of his son's partner who is employed by the Local
Education Authority.
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Councillor C. L. Everett in respect of any item of
business on the Agenda which might relate to the employment
of his sister within the Housing and Social Services Department and
in relation to his employment as Clerk of the Holyhead Town
Council.
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Councillor G.W.Roberts OBE declared an interest in respect
of any item of business on the Agenda which might relate to the
employment of his daughter within the Planning and Environmental
Services Department.
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Councillor E.Schofield declared an interest with regard to
any item of business on the Agenda which might relate to the
employment of his daughter at Oriel Môn, or the employment of
his grandson within the Highways,Transportation &
Property Department.
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Councillor J.Arwel Roberts declared an interest with
regard to any item of business on the agenda which might relate to
the employment of his wife at Tolldy Penrhos, Holyhead.
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Councillor W.J. Chorlton declared an interest in respect
of any item of business on the Agenda which might relate to his
daughter's employment in the Environmental Services
Department.
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Councillor Glyn Jones declared an interest in respect of
any item of business on the agenda which might relate to the
employment of his wife within the Housing and Social Services
Department.
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Councillor Robert Lloyd Hughes declared an interest in
respect of any item of business on the Agenda which might relate to
the employment of his son in the Highways Department.
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Councillor Bryan Owen declared an interest in respect of
any item of business on the agenda which might relate to the
employment of his son in the Economic Development
Department.
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Councillor Keith Evans declared an interest in Item 10 of
these minutes and was not present at the meeting during any
discussion or voting thereon.
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7 DELEGATION BY THE LEADER/MEMBERSHIP OF
THE EXECUTIVE
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In accordance with Rule 4.4.1.2. of the Executive
Procedure Rules, the Leader of the Council named the following as
the members he had chosen to serve on the Executive, together with
their Portfolio responsibilities:-
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Councillor W. J. Williams
-Leader of the
Council
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Councillor G.W. Roberts O.B.E.
-Deputy, Leader of the
Council, Portfolio Holder for Economic Development
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Councillor W.J. Chorlton
-Portfolio Holder for
Housing and Planning
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Councillor D.R. Hughes
-Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Arts and
the Welsh Language
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Councillor John Roberts
-Portfolio Holder for
Finance and Information Technology
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Councillor G.O. Parry M.B.E.
-Portfolio Holder for Social Services and
Health
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Councillor Keith Evans
-Portfolio Holder for
Highways, Transportation & Property
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Councillor J.M. Davies
-Portfolio Holder for
Education and Lifelong Learning
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Councillor H. Eifion Jones
-Portfolio Holder for Personnel, Policy
and Performance
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Councillor Hefin W. Thomas
- Portfolio Holder for Crime & Disorder,
Public Protection & the Environment
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8 MINUTES
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Submitted and confirmed the minutes of the extraordinary
meeting of the County Council held on the 27th May,
2004.
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(pages 1 - 9 of this Volume)
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9 DELEGATIONS MADE BY THE
LEADER
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Submitted - A report by the Managing Director setting out
changes to the Scheme of Delegation relating to Executive functions
made by the Leader and the Executive since the last ordinary
meeting (Rule 4.4.1.4 of the Executive Procedure Rules - Page 131
of the Constitution refers).
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RESOLVED to note the contents of
the report.
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10 QUESTIONS RECEIVED PURSUANT TO RULE
4.1.12.4
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Under Rule 4.1.12.4(ii) of the Constitution, Councillor P.
S. Rogers asked the following question:-
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“What power does this Authority have to
discipline the Chief Constable of North Wales over his
failure to provide acceptable policing for the residents of
Ynys Mon?”
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The Managing Director in reply stated “This Council has no powers to discipline the
Chief Constable of North Wales Police. Under the Police Act
1996 and the Police (Conduct) (Senior Officers) Regulations 1999
such disciplinary powers are vested in the North Wales Police
Authority. I would refer the Councillor to the Clerk of the
North Wales Police Authority - Kelvin Dent at Police Headquarters
at Colwyn Bay - I can provide the Councillor with full contact
details outside this meeting.”
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A
supplementary question was put by Councillor P. S.
Rogers:-
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He invited the Council, “if it did not have
any powers, to ensure that the strongest representation was sent to
the Police Authority, that for too long the Police Authority had
not been active. He referred to televised comments this week
of the Chairman of the Police Authority in that the North Wales
Police Authority is facing being bottom of the Welsh League.
Councillor Rogers expressed the view that this is not
acceptable with the amounts of money being put in, and that a very
strong presence on the Police Authority is needed, and it should no
longer be a "job for the boys" on that Authority. A very
strong voice is needed because areas of Anglesey are not getting
fair representation."
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The Managing Director in reply declined to enter into a
debate on the supplementary question but confirmed that he has
spoken to the Divisional Commander, Chief Inspector Gareth
Pritchard, after receipt of the main question, and that Chief
Inspector Pritchard is more than willing to meet with Councillor
Rogers to discuss the issue.
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11 SCRUTINY AND OVERVIEW ARRANGEMENTS AND
POLITICAL BALANCE
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Reported by the Director of Legal Services/Monitoring
Officer that the purpose of the report was twofold; its first
purpose was to assist the Council in reviewing the future of the
Scrutiny and Overview function within the Council, including the
impact on Special Responsibility Allowances for Members with
special responsibilities, and its second purpose was to guide the
Council on the new political balance arrangements in the light of
the recent election and the proposed new scrutiny
arrangements.
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Prior to the election of the new Council, discussions had
taken place between officers and members of the Council,
particularly at the Modernisation Panel which met between November,
2003 and April, 2004, following which cross-authority member
support had arisen for the replacement of the current 6 scrutiny
committees with a new model comprised of a single scrutiny
committee and two overview committees, the remits of which were set
out in Appendix A of the report to this Council.
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Regulations enacted by the Welsh Assembly Government
provided that any Authority wishing to make any alterations to the
role of structure of scrutiny and overview committees must obtain
the Assembly’s consent before doing so.
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An application for consent to change to the model set out
in Appendix A of the report had been sent to the Assembly along
with a copy of the report to Council and this Authority’s
current arrangements. It was accompanied by a request that a
decision be made and that written confirmation be forwarded to this
Authority at the earliest possible opportunity.
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In the meantime, the Council must legally continue to have
some form of scrutiny arrangements in force, not least of all
because there needed to continue to be a mechanism for dealing with
any called-in decisions which might arise before the proposed model
could be put in place. However, it was recognised that given
the drive to put the new system in place as soon as practically and
legally possible, there was little point in the present system
continuing completely unchanged until this could happen.
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The Director of Legal Services/Monitoring Officer noted
that there was a widely held view that the new aims should be
introduced even though written consent had not yet been
forthcoming. However, she advised that in the circumstances
if the Council decided to proceed before consent was given it may
be necessary to consider whether the duty arose for the Monitoring
Officer to then report to Council that this would be in breach of
legislation which would have the effect of suspending the
decision.
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The Monitoring Officer stated that she would have to make
her judgement at the time. This duty was rarely exercised and
only in clear cases, but was something the Monitoring Officer have
to consider, as a statutory duty.
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In the interim, the Monitoring Officer refers to the
Managing Director's recommendation to members in the report that
until consent was granted, 6 scrutiny committees should continue to
exist, with politically balanced membership being confirmed, and
Group Leaders making nominations, but that there would be no
meetings and no chairs or vice-chairs elected or entitled to any
allowances until consent was granted at the anticipated
‘special’ meeting of the Council on 13 July, unless a
decision was called in, in which case a chair would be elected ad
hoc for that meeting alone. The political balance
arrangements which would prevail from the day of this meeting until
the new arrangements could be brought into operation were set out
in Appendix B to the Managing Director’s report. The
Welsh Assembly Government would be urged in the meantime to provide
a speedy response.
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A report outlining the current position would be submitted
to the 13 July meeting in any case, but if the WAG’s consent
was forthcoming before then, the new system would automatically
come into operation from that time, even if that was before 13
July. The political balance which would prevail as from the
time that the new arrangements came into force were set out in
Appendix C to the report to this Council. These were slightly
different to the table at Appendix B because the new scrutiny
arrangements reduced the total number of seats from 128 to 104, so
that the numbers allocated to each group also reduced pro rata.
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The resultant changes to the Special Responsibility
Allowances (SRA) which would operate from the coming into force of
the new arrangements were shown in Appendix D of the report to this
Council. The change from six scrutiny Chairs to three Chairs
and three Vice-Chairs receiving SRA’s would result in the
same number of allowances being paid, albeit that the Vice-Chair
allowance was less than that for a Chair. Because the
Executive will from now on comprise 10 members rather than the
previous 9, a chair of the Licensing Committee would need to be
elected in due course and the maximum number of SRA's that were
permitted to be paid was 20. If the Licensing Chair was to
receive a SRA then another allowance would then need to be
abolished. It was suggested by the Director of Legal
Services/Monitoring Officer that the allowance paid to the Chair of
the Audit Committee might in the future be the allowance to
disappear, but confirmed that for the time being the SRA’s in
Appendix D, including the Audit Chair’s allowance could and
needed to all be approved.
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As to the matter of political balance, it was understood
that members had informally been discussing the issue of what seats
should be allocated to those members of the Council who were not
affiliated to any Group. As confirmed in earlier reports on
political balance, there is no obligation under the Political
Balance regulations for non-affiliated members to be offered any
seats on committees, but the previous practice of this Council had
nonetheless been to offer such members a pro rata share of the
seats, in order to allow them to have a full contribution to the
Council’s business. Therefore, the tables shown at
Appendices B and C were prepared with the assumption that this
practice would continue.
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There was no obligation in the Political Balance
Regulations for this arrangement, and members might wish to debate
the approach to be taken in response to this report. If it
transpired that the view of the Council as a whole was that some
other approach was preferred, such as no allocation of any seats to
unaffiliated members, or perhaps allocation of seats to scrutiny
committees but not other committees, then the Council would need to
fully explain its proposals to enable further consideration to be
given to the effect on the tables at Appendices B and C.
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The Director of Legal Services recommended that the new
scrutiny arrangements be introduced only once consent was given to
avoid the Council being in breach of regulations.
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RESOLVED
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1.1
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That with immediate effect the present
Scrutiny and Overview arrangements in 2.6.2 of Article 6 of the
Constitution be replaced with the model set out in Appendix
‘A’ attached to this report.
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11.2
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That the political balance arrangements set out
in Appendix ‘C’ of the report to Council attached
hereto shall be effective and preliminary meetings of the new
committees be arranged for the election of Chairpersons and
Vice-Chairpersons, such Chairpersons and Vice-Chairpersons to be
entitled as from the date of their appointment to allowances as
shown in Appendix D of the report to the Council save that the
allowance for the chairperson of Audit Committee shall cease
immediately.
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12 PROGRAMME OF ORDINARY MEETINGS OF THE
COUNCIL
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RESOLVED to approve the following programme of
ordinary meetings of the County Council for the ensuing
year:-
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21st September 2004 - 2.00 pm
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9th December 2004 - 2.00 pm
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3rd May 2005 (Annual Meeting) - 2.00 pm
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The meeting concluded at 3.10 p.m.
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COUNCILLOR J. ARWEL
ROBERTS
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