Meeting documents

Councillor A.M. Jones declared an interest in respect of item 4 and left the meeting during the discussion and voting thereon.

Councillor Bryan Owen decalred an interest in respect of Items 4 and 11 and left the meeting during the dicussion and voting thereon.

Councillors R.Ll. Hughes, W.I. Hughes, Clive McGregor and Bob Parry OBE declared an interest in Items 6, 7 and 8.  They declared that they had been granted dispensation to speak and to vote by the Standards Committee on 10/11th November, 2009 in respect of the consultation regarding the proposal to close schools on the Island.

Councillor W.I. Hughes declared an interest in respect of Item 13 but noted that following legal advice he was allowed to take part in the discussion of the item.

None to declare.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings of the Executive held on the following dates be confirmed as a true record:-

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16th February, 2010

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23rd February, 2010 (am)

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23rd February, 2010 (pm)

Reported by the Corporate Director (Environment and Technical Services) - That a report on the Three Towns Regeneration Programme was submitted to the Executive on 19th January 2010, who approved the £8.7m programme, its inclusion in the Council’s capital plan and capital and revenue budgets, and authorised acceptance of the WAG grant offer of £7,609,525 (which included £3,950,000 of EU Convergence funds). The remaining funding for the programme was from the Heritage Lottery Fund and County Council.

The report presented in January stated that a number of decisions were to be reserved for future decisions by the Executive. These included the awards of “significant individual grants and discretionary payments to third parties”. This report requested Executive authority for delegated powers to set up and administer grant payments under the programme, and to request approval for some significant individual grants within the programme.

The grants and discretionary payments to third parties were listed at Paragraph 1.3 of the report.

The report also referred to the following matters:-

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Special Capital Grants to third party property owners where current Grant schemes were ineligible or insufficient (Paragraph 2.)

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Revenue Grants to third Parties (Town Centre Grants) (Paragraph 3).

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Specific Capital Grant for Llangefni Town Hall (Paragraph 4)

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Specific Capital Grant for Amlwch Port historic buildings (Paragraph 5).

Members referred to the proposal within the report that the allocation of funding to Menter Môn from the approved Anglesey Three Programme notes that £1.4m for the Llangefni Town Hall (with a contingent approval up to £1.7m if the CAT grant approval is not forthcoming); the Members considered that if the CAT grant approval of £300k was not achieved the issue should be discussed further before the release of any additional funding by the Executive.  

Councillor G.O. Parry MBE noted that he appreciated the contribution towards this programme; however he expressed that GeoMôn, the Anglesey Geodiversity project is  facing the possibility of loosing the goodwill voluntary support towards the project.  He considered that the County Council should investigate the possibility of helping the organisation as it is an unique heritage project which helps the economy of the Island and attracts tourist to Anglesey. The Corporate Director (Environment & Technical Services) responded that work is on-going in respect of GeoMôn to secure the project beyond 2013.

RESOLVED  

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To delegate to the Corporate Director – (Environment and Technical Services) the authority to decide on, and make offers and payments of 3 Towns Programme ‘Special Capital Grants’ to third parties up to the sum of £300,000 per project in accordance with procedures agreed under Financial Procedure Rules 4.8.4.5.1.

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To delegate to the Head of Service (Economic Development) the authority to decide on and make offers and payments of 3 Towns Programme ‘Revenue Grants’ to town councils, community or voluntary groups, or non-profit-distributing business groups, in accordance with procedures agreed under Financial Procedure Rules 4.8.4.5.1 and 4.8.4.5.2.

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To approve the allocation of funding to Menter Môn from the approved Anglesey Three Towns Programme as follows:-

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£1.4m for the Llangefni Town Hall.

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that if the CAT grant of £300k is not forthcoming  towards the Llangefni Town Hall project, authorisation to release any additional sum should be submitted to the Executive for consideration.

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£450k of the Amlwch Port Historic Buildings.

(Councillors Aled Morris Jones and Bryan Owen declared an interest in respect of this item and left the meeting during the discussion and voting thereon).

Reported by the Interim Managing Director and the Corporate Director (Environment and Technical Services) - That this Council and key stakeholders, led by the Economic Development Unit was developing the Vision of ‘Anglesey Energy Island’, ‘Powerhouse for the North West Wales Economy’. The vision would be manifested in to a number of job creation private sector projects, and investments, both nuclear and renewable energy projects. At the core of Energy Island, and its main driving force, was the proposed Wylfa new build nuclear power station project. This report explained the need and rationale for establishing a dedicated Anglesey Energy Island Programme Team, to de-risk, in particular, the potential nuclear new build at Wylfa, and to maximise the socio-economic benefit to Anglesey in particular.

As one of its Strategic priorities, the Council had identified “Protect and Develop the Island’s Economy” and a sub priority “ Develop, support and implement the Energy Island concept”. This demonstrated the level of importance, corporately, that was being placed on developing the Energy Island concept. The Council had made the decision to support this corporate activity by agreeing a £100,000 p.a. growth bid, over 3 years, from 2010/11 for the implementation of Energy Island.

The report went on to detail the following matters:-

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Current Energy Island and Wylfa New Build activity.

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Proposal-an Energy Island Programme Team.

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Proposed draft Structure-Energy Island Team.

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Timescale for delivery.

The proposed new build Nuclear Power Station at Wylfa, provides a once in a generation socio-economic opportunity to Anglesey and wider North West Wales.  The new build project, via Horizon Nuclear (a joint venture between RWEnPower and E.con UK), is estimated to cost £8bn.  

At the recently held ‘Collaboration Workshop’, organised by the County Council’s Economic Development Unit between Horizon Nuclear, Anglesey County Council, Gwynedd and Conwy Councils, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), Coleg Menai, Bangor University, WAG and the Department of Environment & Climate Change, there was an agreement that a Programme Team needed to be established, as a matter or urgency, to further the work the Economic Development Unit have been leading on to date.  

Members welcomed the report and stated that the Programme Team should consider that the required infrastructure should be in place for the potential nuclear power station at Wylfa.  The Members expressed also that a training programme should be in place so as to secure that local people benefit from the project.  Members further expressed that the Programme Team should also investigate all possible sources of energy the Island could produce.

RESOLVED

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To agree that a core Energy Island Programme team is established from redeployment of existing YMCC core activity and £100,000 of EDU reserves, supported by the approved £100,000 per annum agreed Growth bid from 2010/11 and other external resources.

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That the Energy Island Programme team should investigate all possible sources of energy opportunities on the Island.

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To agree that the Interim Managing Director, in discussion with the Head of Human Resources and Corporate Director Environmental and Technical, complete the job profile and recruit to the four year fixed term post.

(Councillors R.Ll. Hughes, W.I. Hughes, Clive McGregor and Bob Parry OBE declared that they had been granted dispensation to speak and to vote by the Standards Committee on 10/11th November, 2009 in respect of Items 6, 7 and 8)

At the beginning of Items 6, 7 and 8 the Strategic Co-Ordinator (Education) wished to make the following statement :-

“ a response had been received in respect of the consultation, doubting the accuracy of some observations made in the consultation meetings and doubting the evidence behind the observations and requesting me to correct them.  My response is that it is a record of what was said, not necessarily waterproof, but that is what was said at the meetings; you can take them as they are, we can’t correct them; it is not a matter of correcting them or doubting them, that is what was said”.

Reported by the Corporate Director (Education and Leisure) - That following consideration of the response to the informal consultation in the Spring of 2009 regarding various options regarding the future of Ysgol Aberffraw, the Executive at its 30th November 2009 meeting resolved:-

“That the statutory procedure be followed regarding proposals to cease to maintain Ysgol Aberffraw as from 31 August 2011 and, subject to parental preference to amalgamate the catchment area with the Pencarnisiog or Bodorgan catchment area”

The consultation was conducted between 12th January - 28th February 2010 and a copy of the consultation document was enclosed within the report. Also enclosed were the:-

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Minutes of the consultation meetings with the staff, Governing Body and parents of Ysgol Aberffraw.

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Minutes of the consultation meeting with the Governing Body of Ysgol Pencarnisiog and the consultation meeting with the Governing Body of Ysgol Bodorgan.

The Consultation document was also issued to the parents of Ysgol Pencarnisiog and to the parents of Ysgol Bodorgan with an invitation to submit any comments within the consultation period. No comments were received.

In addition to the comments made at the consultation meetings with the staff at Ysgol Aberffraw, Governing Body and parents two other letters were received from Aberffraw objecting to the proposal and 23 letters were received submitting arguments for amalgamating the Aberffraw catchment area with the Bodorgan catchment area. A summary of these letters was also submitted for consideration by the Executive.  

In December 2009 there were 8 pupils at Ysgol Aberffraw.  By now another pupil has been admitted to the nursery year which means that there are 9 pupils, 7 full time and 2 part time nursery pupils.  Four applications for admission to the nursery year in September 2010 has been received which suggests that the pupil numbers will be 13 by then.

The officer explained that it was decided to recommend that both Pencarnisiog and Bodorgan should be designated the catchment area school for the current Aberffraw catchment area based on the fact that 11 pupils from Aberffraw already attended Ysgol Pencarnisiog, but a significant number of parents of Ysgol Aberffraw pupils had indicated a preference for Ysgol Bodorgan.

RESOLVED that a Statutory Notice be published in accordance with Section 29 (1) (a) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 to close Ysgol Aberffraw as from 31 August 2011 and to denote Ysgol Bodorgan and Ysgol Pencarnisiog as catchment area schools for the current Aberffraw catchment area.

Reported by the Corporate Director (Education and Leisure)- That following consideration of the response to the informal consultation in the Spring of 2009 regarding various rationilasation options on the future of Ysgol Ty Mawr, the Executive at its 30 November 2009 meeting resolved “that the statutory procedure be followed regarding proposals to cease to maintain Ysgol Ty Mawr as from 31 August 2011 and, subject to parental preference to amalgamate the northern part of the catchment area with the Llannerch-y-Medd catchment area and the area to the south of the school with the Bodffordd catchment area.”

The consultation was conducted between 20 January 05 February, 2010 and a copy of the consultation document was enclosed with the report. Also enclosed were the:-

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Minutes of the consultation meetings with the staff, Governing Body and parents of Ysgol Ty Mawr.

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Minutes of the consultation meeting with the Governing Body of Ysgol Bodffordd and the consultation meeting with the Governing Body of Ysgol Llannerch-y-Medd.

The consultation document was also issued to the parents of Ysgol Bodffordd and to the parents of Ysgol Llannerch-y-Medd with an invitation to submit any comments within the consultation period. No comments were received.

In addition to the comments made at the consultation meetings with the staff Governing Body and parents of Ysgol Ty Mawr, letters were received from the Headteacher, a former parent  and a parent and member of the community. A summary of these three letters was also submitted for the Executive’s consideration.

In September 2009 there were 17 pupils at Ysgol Ty Mawr.  By December 2009, 8 had left to other Anglesey schools but by now pupil numbers are down to 3.  No application for admission to the school in September 2010 has been received.  

RESOLVED  that a Statutory Notice be published in accordance with Section 29 (1) (a) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1988 to close Ysgol Ty Mawr as from 31 August 2011 and, subject to parental preference, that Maenaddwyn children be transferred to Ysgol Llannerch-y-Medd and the remaining pupils be transferred to Ysgol Bodffordd and that the respective catchment areas, both primary and secondary be re-organised along the same lines.  

Reported by the Corporate Director (Education and Leisure) -That following consideration of the response to the informal consultation in the Spring of 2009 regarding various rationalisation options regarding the future of Ysgol Llandrygarn, the Executive at its 30th November, 2009 meeting resolved:-

‘that the statutory procedure be followed regarding proposals to cease to maintain Ysgol Llandrygarn as from 31 August 2011 and, subject to parental preference, that most of the catchment area be transferred to the Bodffordd catchment area’

The consultation was conducted between 20th January- 5 March 2010 and a copy of the consultation document was enclosed with the report. Also enclosed were the:-

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Minutes of the consultation meetings with the staff, Governing Body and parents of Ysgol Llandrygarn.

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Minutes of the consultation meeting with the Governing Body of Ysgol Bodffordd.

The consultation document was also issued to the parents of Ysgol Bodffordd with an invitation to submit any comments within the consultation period. No comments were received.

In addition to the comments made at the consultation meetings with the staff, Governing Body and parents of Ysgol Llandrygarn, 2 letters were received in response to the consultation. A summary of these letters was also submitted for the Executive’s consideration.

In September 2009 there were 18 pupils at Ysgol Llandrygarn.  By December 2009 pupil numbers were down to 16 and by now another 8 have transferred to other schools, leaving 8 children.  There have been no application for admission in September 2010 and so it is projected that only 5 pupils will be on roll in September 2010.

RESOLVED that a Statutory Notice be published in accordance with Section 29 (1) (a) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 to close Ysgol Llandrygarn as from 31 August 2011 and, subject to parental preference, to transfer the pupils to Ysgol Bodffordd and to include the current Ysgol Llandrygarn catchment area in the Ysgol Bodffordd catchment area.

Following the discussion and recommendations in respect of Item 6, 7 and 8 (Consultation Regarding Proposal to Close Schools), the Portfolio Holder (Education) wish the following statement to be recorded :-

“It is not an easy decision to close schools that have given years of exemplary service to their communities.

The Executive Committee realises that closing schools is a heavy blow to staff, parents and the community but unfortunately, due to the financial situation and the reduction in the number of children, it is a decision which has to be made.

Although closing a school is a heavy blow to the parents and the community, it also threatens the livelihood of the staff and in that context, I wish to underline the decision of the Executive Committee to encourage the Governing Bodies of the County’s Primary Schools to subscribe to the staff redeployment strategy which has been developed by Officers.”

Reported by the Corporate Director (Education and Leisure) - That Estyn had inspected the Isle of Anglesey Youth Support Services in November, 2009. The Estyn Inspection report had been reviewed and the Post Inspection Plan had been approved by the Strategic Committee of the Children and Young Peoples’ Partnership (5 March,2010). Both Committees approved the Post Inspection Plan. The report was also considered by the Education, Health and Welfare Policy Overview Committee on 5th March, 2010, where it was scrutinised thoroughly together with the Action Plan.  The Overview Committee has ratified the Action Plan for the Executive to adopt.

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To approve the development of the Council’s Affordable Priorities Programme aimed at saving £10m over the next 3 years.

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That Portfolio Holders work with individual Directors to firm up proposals and any consultation arrangements both within and outside the Council on a case by case basis.

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That the performance monitoring reports to the Executive include progress on developing the Affordable Priorities Programme to meet the financial challenges.

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That a Staff at Risk Policy be developed for formal consultation.

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To note and approve the allocation of budget for 2010-11 as referred to in Appendix 1 of the report.

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To delegate authority to officers for new Traditional Planned Maintenance schemes to be procured on completion of the Stock Condition Survey review in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing and the Corporate Director – Finance.  

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To note the continued appointment of external consultants, as necessary, in order to carry out supplementary services in accordance with paragraph 2.7 of the report.

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To approve the contents of the Supporting People Operational Plan for 2010-11.

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To note that contracts with the providers noted in Appendix C of the Supporting People Operational Plan roll over to 31st March, 2012.