Meeting documents

1

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

Councillor H. W. Thomas declared an interest with regard to any matter that might relate to the employment of his son within the Authority.

Councillor E. Schofield declared an interest with regard to any item that might relate to the employment of his grandson in the Highways Department.

Councillor G.W.Roberts,OBE, declared an interest with regard to any matter that might relate to the employment of his daughter in the Environmental Services Department.

Councillor C.L.Everett declared an interest with regard to any matter that might relate to the             employment of his daughter in the Personnel Department.

Councillors C. McGregor, R. G. Parry, OBE, E. Schofield and Ieuan Williams declared an interest in Item 5 of these minutes and were not present at the meeting during any discussion or voting thereon.

Councillor A. Morris Jones declared an interest with regard to any matter that might relate to the employment of his brother in the Education Department.

2

TO RECEIVE ANY ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE CHAIRPERSON, LEADER,           MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE OR THE HEAD OF THE PAID SERVICES.

The Chair extended a warm welcome to Councillor W. Thomas Hughes newly elected member for the Llanbadrig Ward, who was attending his first meeting of the County Council.

Best wishes were extended to Mrs. Edyth Harrisson of the Planning Department who had retired last Friday after 43 years of service to the Council.

Congratualtions to those who were competing at the Island Games at Aland. A gold medal had already been won in the shooting competition. Further results to follow.

Congratulations were also extended to all those who had been involved with Anglesey being named as the first County in Wales to be awarded the status of an European Geopark.

Best wishes to those competing at the Royal Show, Sioe Môn and the Eisteddfod over the coming weeks.

Condolences were extended to the family of Mrs. Jackie Roberts, a teacher at Ysgol y Parc who passed away on 6th June, 2009.

Sympathy was also extended to Councillor H. Eifion Jones and to the family upon the sudden loss of his mother in law.

Condolences were also extended to any Member of Officer of the Council who had suffered a bereavement.

Members and Officers stood in silent tribute as a mark of their respect.

The Chair reminded members that the Armed Forces Day would be taking place at Holyhead on Saturday 4th July, 2009, and he looked forward to seeing everybody present.

3

LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOUNDARY COMMISSION FOR WALES - REVIEW OF ELECTORAL ARRANGEMENTS IN ANGLESEY

Reported by the Head of Corporate Services - That the Local Government Act 1972 provided that the Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales undertook a periodic review of Local Government areas in Wales.

Following the review, the Commission made proposals to the Welsh Assembly Government for effecting changes appearing desirable in the interest of effective and convenient local government.

The current review included a change to electoral arrangements of principal (County) areas throughout Wales. This included a review of the number of councillors, the boundaries of electoral divisions and their names.

The Commission had recently completed a review of communities and community wards. It was unlikely they would bring forward any proposals which would amend these areas.

The Commission were requesting any initial observation on their work by the 23rd June 2009. At this Council’s request an extension had been granted until the end of next week.

By the autumn of 2009 the Commission intended to formulate draft proposals and invite representations to WAG and interested persons. WAG may then consider the recommendations and any representations before effecting the final decision in preparation for the 2012 council elections.

Pursuant to the above, the council may wish to consider a number of matters included in the review and make representations on:

Ÿ

Council size:

i. Guidance from WAG considered that the minimum number of councillors required for proper management of a county was 30, with a maximum of 75.

Ÿ

Single Member or Multi Member electoral divisions:

i. Although multi member electoral decisions were more common in urban areas they could also be considered for this County. However, members may wish to highlight the benefit of single member electoral divisions in terms of promoting local accountability and responsibility within localities.

Ÿ

Ratio of Councillors to electors:

i. WAG Guidance suggested that the number of electors shall be, as nearly as possible, the same in every electoral division within a county to ensure that each vote had equal value. Locally numbers of electors per ward varied between 682 and 1821.

ii. The Guidance also considered a councillor to elector ratio to be consistent and no lower than 1:1750. Only 4 of our divisions currently exceeded this ratio.

iii. However, at the minimum number of 30 members our ratio would be 1:1716.

The “building blocks” of electoral divisions would be the existing wards of each community. However, moving wards between divisions may affect local ties and impact on well established communities of interest and links with community councils.

Finally there was the issue of ward names and again this raised issue around community identity and historic ties. Members may wish to comment on this issue of retaining ward names.

The Head of Service stated that Anglesey was very different to many local authorities in terms of its rural nature and relatively small and scattered communities. That might assist the Authority in aiming towards the status quo. Also over half of the seats were within a couple of hundred votes of the 1200 average. As regards local ties, new combinations might break up exisitng neighbourhoods, communities and established areas on the Island.

Councillor Lewis Davies expressed his concern that Community Councils had not received any information in this respect.

The Head of Service in response stated that Community Councils had received the same information as the County Council. This Council also wrote to every Community Council on the Island inviting them to attend a meeting in May with the Local Government Boundary Commission in the Council Chamber.

Councillor Rhian Medi enquired as to how this Commission had been set up. Who were the members, who had appointed them, who did they represent and what was their accountability to the communities?

The Head of Service in reply stated that the Commission had been appointed by the Welsh Assembly via their public appointments unit.

Councillor Keith Evans stated that Anglesey had not had any changes for some time to the number of Councillors (40) and perhaps this had been the strength of the Council’s position. He felt that the public were happy with their wards and that their local members were accessible. He felt that the reference to multi-member divisions should be ruled out entirely and that the Council should retain the status quo. The ratio of one member to 1750 electors was unattainable and that this Council would be far more comfortable with a figure of 1200. He considered that the Authority could tweak the boundaries of some towns on the Island to bring these figures down. Each ward was different in that it had its own charecteristics, history and heritage and the Council should not interfere with that.

Councillor C. Ll. Everett stated that it would be the Welsh Assembly who would have the final say whether they accepted or rejected the Boundary Commission’s proposals. He agreed with Councillor Keith Evans that for the present time it would be best to retain the status quo.

Councillor H. W. Thomas was of the opinion that there would be change at the end of the day. This Council’s strength would be to make sensible proposals to the Commission that would be fair and acceptable to the Island.

Councillor W. J. Chorlton was in favour of having a look at the situation. If the Council was not pro-active in this respect, changes would be imposed by the Welsh Assembly. He considered that the Leader should set up a Panel of 4/5 members to look at the tweaking of some boundaries in order to achieve a better balance for the Island.

Councillor G. W. Roberts, OBE considered that multi-member wards were not an option. He was agreeable to finding a better balance and attempting to reduce the figure from 1750 to say 1300/1400. The Council needed to be realistic and accept that there needed to be some reduction in the number of Councillors.

Councillor A. Morris Jones stated that there needed to be some kind of equation that took into account the rural areas. A multi-member ward would in his opinion accept the community that one lived in and then the number of Councillors could be worked out for that community. Multi-member wards were to do with towns and not vast tracks of rural areas.

Councillor J. Penri Williams considered that the present system worked well and he was opposed to multi-member wards. He was of the opinion that there was merit in the Council sticking to one member wards.

Councillor E. Schofield supported the arguments which acknowledged that the status quo was not an option. He did consider however, that it would be possible to reduce the figure of 1750 down to an acceptable figure of say 1400 for the Island. He also felt that there was a consensus within the Chamber not to accept multi-member wards. He supported the idea that Group Leaders should get together to discuss the matter and that an invitation be extended to any member who may wish to attend to express their views.

The Leader accepted that the Council should look to retain one member for each ward. He was prepared to set up a Group Leaders meeting in this respect with a view to responding to the Commission in a week’s time. He stated that 30 seats would equate to a ratio of 1:1716, whereas 35 seats would equate to a ratio of 1:1470.

Councillor H. E. Jones considered that the best way forward would be for the Panel to await the draft report and thereafter submit its observations to WAG within the 2 month consultation period.

The Acting Managing Director suggested that in order to comply with the Council Constitution, the Council should delegate responsibility to the Head of Corporate Services to seek guidance from the Panel before formulating a response to the Commission.

Councillor B. Durkin considered that the Council should be pro-active in this respect and inform the Commission of this Council’s wishes prior to the publication of the draft report.

RESOLVED

Ÿ

That this Council is opposed to the creation of multi-member electoral divisions and wishes to retain the benefit of single member wards in terms of promoting local accountability and responsibility within localities.

Ÿ

That authority be given to the Head of Corporate Services to set up as a matter of urgency a Panel of Members to assist him in the work of formulating a response to the Boundary Commission, with a view to achieving a Councillor to elector ratio of 1:1400.

Ÿ

The Panel of Members to consist of the following:-

Leader of the Council

1 Labour Member

1 Plaid Cymru Member

1 Conservative Member

1 Liberal Member

1 Independent Member

1 Unaffiliated Member

4

POLITICAL BALANCE ARRANGEMENTS

Reported - That following the by-election on 14th May 2009 the Council needed to review its political balance arrangements on the Council Committees.

Attached to the report was a table setting out the political balance of Council Committees in accordance with the above legislation. The table now showed the four political groups 19, 8, 5 and 5 Members respectively and 3 separate Unaffiliated Members.

The opportunity had been taken to give further consideration to the nature of each Council Committee and the ones that came within the Political Balance requirements.

The total number of seats to be allocated was 120.

Clearly, unless the calculation arrived at whole numbers of total seats and seats on individual committees, fractions would inevitably result, so that exact compliance would be impossible. It was however, necessary to achieve the best possible compliance, on the figures, with the principles set out under the Local Government and Housing Act, 1989.

Each political group on the Council could only allocate those seats it received under the political balance arrangements to its own members and cannot allocate to a Councillor who was not a member of that same political group.

Councillor E. Schofield referred to the table prepared by the Corporate Director (Finance) where on the Planning Committee, the Original Independents Group had received an allocation of 6.65. This should be rounded up to 7 but the figure allocated to the Group was 6. Similarly, that Group had been awarded 2 seats on the Standards Committee Appointments Panel with a figure of 1.425. In order that consistency should prevail, he considered that the Group should only be allocated one seat on that Panel.

The Corporate Director (Finance) in reply stated that it was never possible to make the figures work when one rounded-up every time, and that legislation required balance in the total number of seats to be given priority over balance on individual committees. It was necessary however, to achieve the best possible compliance on the figures.

Councillor P. S. Rogers was of the opinion that as regards the question of unaffiliated seats on Committees, that this Council should never again elect Chairmen of Committees before the allocation of members by Political Groups to those Committees. He stated that the Leader via Councillor Tom Jones had approached Councillor R. Ll. Jones four days prior to the election of Chairs and Vice-Chairs, with a view of him becoming Chair of the Audit Committee in place of Councillor Everett. He further stated that there had been no consultation with him or Councillor Keith Evans as to their wishes.

The Leader in reply stated that the Unaffiliated members were given the opportunity of taking part but chose not to and as a result he as Leader had appointed unaffiliated members to the various Committees. He took very strongly the comments made against him as to his ‘disrespect to the Council’ by Councillor Rogers. However, Councillor Rogers’ pronouncements over the last few months needed to be looked at equally.

Comments were made by certain members as to the integrity of Councillor R. Ll. Jones in accepting the Chair of the Audit Committee.

Councillor R. Ll. Jones considered these comments and previous comments made to be a slight on his integrity. He had been a member of this Council since 1976 and he had never before had a slight on his character. He had proven his integrity by speaking out against the Ty Mawr planning application. Likewise, he had voted against the majority decision of the Audit Committee on travelling expenses and had voted for the recommendations of the Director of Finance. Any more of these accusations by fellow Councillors would result in legal action.

Councillor G. W. Roberts, OBE endorsed the point made earlier by Councillor E. Schofield as regards the composition of the Standards Appointments Panel. There was at present one Plaid Cymru member and two Original Independent members with no representation thereon by any of the Opposition Groups.

Councillor C. Ll. Everett wished to respond as he had been named in previous statements made regarding the Audit Committee. He stated that he was entitled to respond under the Constitution.

The Chair stated that they would only be discussing the item in question and that he would not allow any further discussion on the appointment of the Chair of the Audit Committee.

On a Point of Order, Councillor C. Ll. Everett wished it to be recorded in the minutes, that the Chair had refused him the opportunity to respond after being named in the Chamber and that in so doing his actions were contrary to the rules of the Constitution.

The Corporate Director (Finance) stated that Councillor G. W. Roberts, OBE, had raised a valid point which perhaps deserved consideration. He had merely tried to comply with the regulations in the law of the land and treat each group equally. There was a case of natural fair play here in that the opposition were not represented. He would be prepared to look at this again in consultation with Group Leaders.

Councillor G. W. Roberts, OBE, stated that his Group would be prepared to release a seat on the Planning Committee for a seat on the Standards Appointments Panel.

Councillor E. Schofield endorsed the proposal put forward by Councillor G. W. Roberts, OBE and the remaining political balance proposed within the report should be accepted.    

RESOLVED

Ÿ

To note the new political balance arrangements and the number of seats attributable to each of the Groups and the Unaffiliated Members under the Local Government and Housing 1989;

Ÿ

To agree to the Original Independent Group retaining 7 seats on the Planning and Orders Committee, in return for that Group releasing one of their seats on the Standards Committee Appointments Panel to the Môn Ymalen Group.  

Ÿ

To agree the whole numbers of seats to be allocated to the Unaffiliated Members.

Ÿ

To request the three Unaffiliated Members to determine amongst themselves which Committees they wish to serve upon in accordance with the Political Balance arrangements contained within the Report to this Council. Should they be unable to reach agreement in this respect authority be given to the Leader of the Council to determine these allocations and for that information to be given to the Committee Services Manager.

5

RECOMMENDATION TO THE COUNTY COUNCIL FROM THE AUDIT COMMITTEE HELD ON 29TH MAY, 2009 - TRAVELLING AND SUBSISTENCE EXPENSES

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION - MEMBERS’ TRAVELLING AND SUBSISTENCE EXPENSES, JANUARY TO FEBRUARY, 2009

Councillor W. J. Chorlton before submitting his Motion on Notice, wished to make a statement to the Council that might have an effect on today’s debate.

Because of the seriousness of this matter, the Opposition Groups believed that there had been a serious breach in the rules of the Constitution by the members involved. For that reason, the matter had been reported to the North Wales Police for a thorough and proper investigation. He enquired as to whether or not it was proper for the Council to debate the issue or should the matter be adjourned until after the Police had concluded their investigation.

Councillor W. J. Chorlton believed that these had been misleading and fraudulent claims within the Council’s system and definitely in breach of the Council Constitution. He said that the letter from the Corporate Directors counteracting the letter by the former Leader, actually endorsed what was being said.

Ÿ

That a report be brought back by officers to this Council on members expenses over the last 3 years.

Ÿ

That members have the option of travelling by first class train to meetings where attendance by this Council is deemed necessary.  

6

NOTICE OF MOTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH PARA 4.1.13.1 OF THE CONSTITUTION