Agenda item

To consider a report by the Chair of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee.

The report of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee on its review of the closure of the Skate Park in Llangefni was presented for the Executive’s consideration.

Councillor Aled Morris Jones, Portfolio Member for Economic Development, Tourism and Leisure presented the report and proposed an amendment that Officers investigate the availability of grant funding sources to allow the reinstatement of the Skate Park and report back to the January 2015 meeting of the Executive. He said that he had offered this course of action at the time of the Scrutiny Committee’s review meeting.

Councillor Dylan Rees spoke as a Local Member in favour of the reinstatement of the skate park. The circumstances now provided an opportunity to turn an adverse situation around and re-establish the skate park as a brand new state of the art facility. He requested the Executive to consider approving the utilisation of £50k from general reserves as match funding towards the re-establishment of the skate park. Councillor R.G. Parry, OBE also speaking as a Local Member supported the comments made with regard to the Council having a duty to make amends for the way in which the facility had been removed.

Councillor Victor Hughes as the Member who had requested the scrutiny review emphasised that the Council, having taken away a valuable community asset in an inappropriate way should pay to reinstate it on its original site as a matter of priority and learn from the experience. He asked for the Executive’s support and deemed the proposed timeline to allow the investigation of alternative sources of funding to be an inadequate response to the situation.

The Interim Head of Function (Resources) and Section 151 Officer clarified that the professional advice he had given on this matter was that there was no funding for the project and none had been sought,  and that he therefore advised the Executive to decline the recommendation presented. He said that there are reserves available if the Council is minded to spend reserves on rebuilding the skate park.

Councillor H. Eifion Jones, Portfolio Member for Finance said that he agreed that there are lessons to be learnt from the actions taken. However, capital funding is scarce and there are a number of calls against it. The skate park facility is not a statutory provision and priority has to be given to statutory services. There is a role for the Town Council to play. He supported the proposal to examine alternative sources of grant funding for the facility. Councillor Kenneth Hughes, Portfolio Member for Housing and Social Service supported the reinstatement of the skate park via the exploration of grant funding in the first place.

The Chair said that the recommendation to reinstate the skate park on its original site is accepted. Officer resources should be earmarked to the task of investigating and identifying grant funding for that purpose.

It was resolved -

•  That the Skate Park be reinstated on the original site outside Plas Arthur, Llangefni

•  That Officer resources be earmarked as a matter of immediacy to investigate the availability of grant funding to enable reinstatement, and a report on potential funding sources be presented to the January, 2015 meeting of the Executive.

•  That Heads of Service should ensure in future that appropriate training is given to officers who may find themselves in a similar situation i.e. if changes are to be made to the way citizens access or receive services, regarding the requirement to consult with stakeholders and Local Members and to undertake Equality and Privacy Impact Assessments (EIA and PIAs) accordingly.