CABINET MEMBER: Councillor Dyfrig Siencyn
To consider the
report
Decision:
To accept the report and to note
the observations.
Minutes:
A report was submitted outlining the
governance arrangements of the Public Services Board (PSB). The contents of the report were
expanded upon and a brief update was provided on the developments within
the priority fields along with the work of the sub-groups responsible for those
fields. Since March 2020, in light of the covid-19 pandemic, it was explained that public bodies had had to adjust to
respond to the health crisis by changing their way of working and communicating
with others. Reference was made to a workshop held in
September 2020 to discuss the Board's role in the recovery of communities from
the pandemic.
As a result of the
workshop's findings the work streams of the existing sub-groups
were revised together with their work programmes, and milestones were agreed. It was also
agreed to undertake further research in some areas (financial poverty
and youth unemployment) to ascertain the latest situation. The findings of this
research would be presented to the Public Services
Board on 16 December 2020.
Another finding of the workshop was that a number of the partners
responded to the wellbeing needs of our communities as individual
organisations. It was explained that the PSB noted
that they wanted to avoid work duplication, and they were investigating how they
could operate without duplicating the work undertaken by individual partners in
order to add value to the current plans. One way to avoid work duplication was
that the Board from time to time invites other partners to give presentations
on their work such as the Skills Partnership and the Community Safety
Partnership.
Members expressed their thanks for the report.
During the discussion, the
following observations were made by Members:-
·
If the Board's work was to be scrutinised then
information was needed regarding measures, targets, data, successes
·
Why were the Police not part
of the Board?
·
There was a lack of houses available to buy locally
·
The
countryside was suffering with services moving or closing down in communities
·
The
ethos of Housing Associations was to buy local housing rather than build
housing for local people – it was necessary to focus on the element of
re-building to protect the Welsh language and to ensure that any funding
received e.g. Council Tax Premium for second homes would be invested in those
areas that suffer from the impact
In response to an observation that the Welsh Government had not
anticipated the need to contribute to the costs of coastal maintenance in
response to the increase in use / visitors as a result
of the pandemic, it was suggested that the Government's mindset
needed to adapt to understand that some coastal issues were beyond Local
Authority strategies. It was highlighted that Gwynedd had already had to deal with
additional costs to maintain infrastructure due to the increase in use.
It was added that the Future Generations
Commissioner noted that public bodies had to focus on how their decisions would
have a long-term impact, working together to prevent problems from happening
and to recognise that no individual public body can respond to the major
challenges. The need to discuss the
visitors' structure was agreed and it was noted that a
working group had been established to look at the current lack of provision
together with trying to find a system for sustainable tourism.
In response to a comment about getting
Gwynedd Council to lead on housing matters rather than the Chief Executive of a
Commercial Housing Company, it was noted that Gwynedd Council's Housing and
Property Department would present a Housing Action Plan to the Cabinet on 15
December outlining suitable plans to deliver the Council's vision to secure
suitable housing for the County's residents. The
Housing and Property Department will collaborate with Housing Associations to
complete specific plans to push the plan forward. It was added that the work of the Housing
Sub-group was to establish an innovative programme to build new, affordable
housing in the County e.g. building low carbon housing, or 'pre-constructed
housing' in Wales. It was emphasised
that the Sub-group's work was to look at new opportunities or construction
methods with the Gwynedd Housing Strategy and the Gwynedd Housing Action Plan
firmly in the hands of Gwynedd Council.
In response to a comment that there was no poverty sub-group, although
it had been identified as a priority area, it was
noted that the Public Services Board wished to look at poverty but work
duplication was a concern. It was added that the intention was to seek arrangements to
identify where the gaps were and to maximise what can be done to tackle
poverty. Members were
reminded that further research was being conducted to ascertain the
latest situation and to submit a report to the Board on 16 December 2020.
RESOLVED
To
accept the report and to note the observations.
Supporting documents: