COUNCIL - 2 DECEMBER 2009

MINUTES OF AN ORDINARY MEETING OF THE COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL HELD IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER, CIVIC OFFICES, ANGEL STREET, BRIDGEND ON WEDNESDAY, 2 DECEMBER 2009 AT 3.00PM

Present:

Councillor J H Tildesley - Mayor in the Chair

Councillors Councillors Councillors Councillors

D A D Brett P A Hacking M Lewis G Thomas R D L Burns T Hacking L C Morgan M Thomas D Buttle E M Hughes W B Morgan D A Unwin N Clarke C E Hughes M E J Nott K Watkins H J David K S Hunt D R Pugh K J Watts C Davies M Inglesant B I Quennell C Westwood G Davies C J James M Reeves P J White K R T Deere R M James D Sage M C Wilkins E Dodd R D Jenkins S B Smith H M Williams P A Evans A Jones J C Spanswick R Williams C A Green D N W Jones W H C Teesdale M Winter

Officers:

J Farrar - Chief Executive G Moss - Corporate Director - Resources and Section 151 Officer L Fradd - Corporate Director - Communities A Harris - Corporate Director - Wellbeing H Anthony - Corporate Director - Children P A Jolley - Assistant Chief Executive Legal and Regulatory Services and Monitoring Officer G P Jones - Principal Cabinet and Committee Officer M A Galvin - Senior Cabinet and Committee Officer

269 MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting of Council held on 4 November 2009 be approved as a true and accurate record.

270 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from the following Members for the reasons so stated:

Councillor M W Butcher - Family funeral Councillor E P Foley - Unwell Councillor M Gregory - Unwell Councillor R Shepherd - Unwell Councillor P Penpraze - Recuperating Councillor K Edwards - Unwell Councillor A E Davies - Work commitment

271 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

None.

174 COUNCIL - 2 DECEMBER 2009

272 MAYORAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

(1) The Mayor announced that there was still two more days before the closing date for nominations for the Mayor’s Citizenship Award. The awards were open to all citizens who lived and worked in the County Borough and who had made a positive impact within the community. Groups and businesses that deserve recognition could also be nominated, he added. For more details and nominations forms persons should contact 643663, visit www.bridgend.gov.uk or obtain them from Customer Services. The deadline for nominations was Friday 4 December 2009.

(2) The Mayor thanked everyone involved in last Thursday’s ‘Metal Miles’ event at Bridgend Recreation Centre. He was delighted to place the first of more than 106,300 thousand cans which led to the breaking of the world record for forming the longest line of drinks cans. A big pat on the back should go to those officers in the Communities Directorate the Mayor added, who worked hard to make this record occur, as well as all those schools who donated their empty cans.

(3) The Mayor again thanked everyone who attended and supported the charity book fayre last Friday and Monday at the Civic Offices, Bridgend. The fayre was organised alongside the Bridgend County Civic Charity Appeals Committee to raise funds for this year’s local charities which were Yellow , Glaze Prostate Charity Wales and the Bridgend Stroke Association.

(4) The Mayor was pleased to extend his congratulations to staff, pupils and governors at Mynydd Cynffig Junior School after their recent glowing inspection report. The school received seven grade ones which was a wonderful achievement and a testimony to their hard work.

(5) The Mayor advised that whilst the Leader would speak of the tragic deaths of two Brynteg School students recently, last Friday he went to visit the families of both these young people prior to their respective funerals. The Mayor announced that both the families had shown tremendous courage and dignity following their sad loss. He added that the funerals were extremely well attended particularly by young people who were friends and colleagues of Royston Thomas and Alex Jones.

(6) The Mayor concluded by stating that he had recently attended the Fire and Rescue Headquarters Llantrisant, Long Service and Commendation Awards. He was pleased to announce that Councillor Clive James had been given such an award, and on behalf of Members he congratulated Councillor James on this achievement.

273 LEADER’S REPORT

1. The Leader announced that everyone had been shocked and very saddened to learn of the deaths of two Brynteg Comprehensive students in a road traffic accident at Ogmore by Sea on Monday, 16 November. A third student he stated was still being treated for his injuries. The Leader thanked colleagues at both Brynteg and in the Children’s Directorate for the excellent support they offered to all those affected by this tragedy and advised that on behalf of those present he extended his thoughts and sympathies to both families and their loved ones. Anyone who could provide any information about the accident he suggested should contact South Wales Police.

175 COUNCIL - 2 DECEMBER 2009

2. It was the Leader’s pleasure to announce, that had been appointed Labour Leader in Wales, which would ultimately lead to First Minister in Wales. The Leader stated this was well deserved as he was a clear winner arising from the vote. He added that the County Borough Council should be proud of this achievement particularly as Carwyn had formerly been a local Member at BCBC. He added that on behalf of the Authority he would extend his congratulations to Carwyn Jones.

3. The Leader was pleased to inform that Council had been awarded a full grant for achieving Improved Agreement targets. In February this year an Improvement Agreement was signed with the Welsh Assembly Government and in September the Wales Audit Office assessed evidence detailing progress made by the Council in the first year. Based on the Council’s achievement, WAG had awarded the Authority the full amount of the Improvement Agreement Grant of just under £1.4m which was excellent news.

4. Congratulations were deserved to a number of Council staff this month. The Leader announced that the Corporate Director - Resources, Gareth Moss had been named the Local Government Chronicle’s Finance Director of the Year, which was a tremendous achievement. The Leader also extended a huge well done to all those colleagues recognised in this year’s Face of Bridgend staff awards. Those who were at the ceremony a few weeks ago would know what a very special event it was and how deserving the winners were.

5. The Leader announced that he was moved to see the turn out of Remembrance Sunday events across the borough. The County Borough had a strong association with the Armed Forces and our veterans and it was heartening to see the support and respect shown by communities towards this annual occasion. The Leader thanked everyone involved in arranging all these important remembrance events.

6. The Leader was pleased to inform Members that the proposal to close Ogmore and Ynysawdre Comprehensive Schools and establish a new school on the Tondu site had been approved by the Minister for Children, Education and Lifelong Learning and Skills at the Welsh Assembly Government. The local authority and the two schools were now keen to work together to ensure that the project was a real success and that any concerns expressed during the consultation were properly addressed. The next steps were to set up a Programme Board to oversee all the work. There would also be set up a temporary governing body which would be responsible for appointing the head teacher of the new school. Contracts would shortly be appointed to begin the design work he added. The new school was proposed to open in September 2011 using the sites of both the above two schools. The pupils’ education would be the highest priority during the projected three year build period and by 2014 the plan was for all pupils to be on the one site in the new premises. This was an exiting opportunity to have a first class facility for young people of the County Borough, and the wider communities in Ogmore, Garw and Gateway areas which would significantly benefit the whole of the Bridgend County Borough. The Leader thanked colleagues who had worked hard to bring the Council to this important stage, and to the communities who had shared their views and helped the Authority shape the way forward.

7. The Leader advised that the Blaengarw Creation Development Trust had recently been presented by First Minister, Rhodri Morgan with the British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA) Award for inspired creation work within the Garw Valley. He emphasised that this was a highly recognised and prestigious

176 COUNCIL - 2 DECEMBER 2009

award that covered all of the UK. He congratulated the Trust on this significant achievement.

274 PUBLIC PROTECTION DEPARTMENT HEALTH AND SAFETY SERVICE PLAN 2009-2010

The Deputy Leader presented a report, which sought Council approval for the above Plan (Appendix ‘A’ to the report referred), initially approved by Cabinet on 6 October 2009.

The report advised that the Authority’s Trading Standards Service was delegated to enforce Health and Safety legislation within the County Borough and that to this end, it was incumbent upon the Department to produce an annual service plan.

The Deputy Leader advised, that the plan was prepared in addition to the Council’s Corporate Plans with regard to service delivery, and was required to evidence necessary practices in relation to issues such as the provision of advice and education, enforcement, (including inspection), investigation of complaints, service requests and non-compliance with certain statutory requirements.

The Deputy Leader referred Members to certain key providers of the attached Plan, more particularly, certain Risk Based Inspections, Issues regarding Entertainment Licence Inspections, Health and Safety Advice and Planning and Building Control applications.

He pointed out that the Council were looking to become more vigilant in the protection of minors against issues such as the consumption of alcohol and unmanned sun beds.

In relation to the latter, he advised that the Council were liaising with other local authorities to oppose the use of sun beds due, to the obvious danger attached to them.

He further advised that the Welsh Assembly Government were looking at introducing legislation which could possibly result in the banning of sun beds for safety reasons, and that the Council were currently visiting all these establishments within the County Borough to examine safety precautions the premises have in place regarding the use of these beds.

RESOLVED: That Council approves the Health and Safety Service Plan 2009-10, attached to the report of the Deputy Leader.

275 REGIONAL TRANSPORT PLAN REPORT FOR FORMAL ADOPTION

The Cabinet Member - Communities submitted a report, which:

(a) Advised Council that the final version of the Regional Transport Plan was formally adopted by the SEWTA Board on 18 September 2009.

(b) Informed Council that Cabinet had endorsed the Regional Transport Plan at its meeting on 3 November 2009; and

(c) Requested that Council formally adopts the Regional Transport Plan, a copy of which had been made available to Members via the Members lounge.

177 COUNCIL - 2 DECEMBER 2009

The Cabinet Member - Communities advised that the Council were one of ten authorities that formed part of SEWTA, and who were being asked to adopt the Regional Transport Plan (RPT), a statutory document which in the case of this Authority, would replace its Local Transport Plan.

The Cabinet Member - Communities further advised that the Welsh Assembly Government had been given powers which would allow for the creation of Transport Consortia to enable local authorities to work together on a voluntary basis to produce an RTP as an alternative process to create Regional Transport Authorities (RTA’s), which had been opposed to by the Welsh Local Government Association and SEWTA who considered them to be undemocratic, bureaucratic, expensive and inefficient.

The report advised that a revised timetable had been introduced by WAG, which would see the RTP being published and adopted by the end of November 2009, with final approval by WAG being given in March 2010.

The report further advised that the RTP had a number of potential implications for the Authority, for example, within its five year programme it included many cross boundary schemes and regional projects which impacted upon the Bridgend County Borough Area.

Also it included a number of regionally significant schemes located in the Bridgend County Borough for which SEWTA was bidding for grant funding (Appendix A to the report referred).

These schemes had been identified as those regionally significant within the Authority. However, Officers would continue to actively participate within SEWTA to promote any new or additional schemes developed by the Council.

The Cabinet Member - Communities advised that the schemes detailed in the report Appendix were not exhaustive and that new schemes could be added as and when they were identified.

Together with the Corporate Director - Communities, he responded to a number of questions from Members on the current status and progress of certain schemes listed in the attached Appendix, including the present position regarding the funding of such schemes. The Corporate Director - Communities added that schemes could potentially be prioritised if located within the Western Valleys Strategic Regeneration Areas (SRA) or other key regeneration areas within the County Borough.

A point was made from the floor, that as the schemes were an example of investment of public money in infrastructure works, the use of private sector money should be pursued wherever possible, via Section 106 Agreements, particularly for the larger schemes.

The Leader concluded the debate, by stating that a few of the schemes so listed had now been successfully completed, and that it was about prioritising other schemes that would be achievable to undertake via successful bids of grant funding, following the undertaking of appropriate feasibility studies.

RESOLVED: That Council approves and adopts the Regional Transport Plan as endorsed by Cabinet on 3 November 2009.

178 COUNCIL - 2 DECEMBER 2009

276 2010 - 2011 COUNCIL TAX BASE

The Corporate Director - Resources presented a report, which provided Council with details of the Council tax base and estimated collection rate for 2010 - 11.

He explained to Members, that the council tax base was a measure of the relative taxable capacity of the borough and community councils within the area.

This figure, the Corporate Director - Resources added, represented the estimated full year equivalent number of band D dwellings taking into account the Council’s estimated collection rate.

The Council’s council tax base was used to calculate and set the council tax payable for each area, taking into account changes in liability, new properties to be built and any demolitions scheduled. It was adjusted for the estimated collection rate the Corporate Director - Resources confirmed. The tax base used for setting the Council tax, allowed for a collection rate of less than 100% whereas the relative tax base used by the Welsh Assembly Government for the purposes of distributing RSG assumed a collection rate of 100%.

The Corporate Director - Resources informed Members that the tax base had to be adjusted to reflect the estimated collection rate with there being no real prescribed formula for this figure. He added that individual Councils usually set the collection rate based on previous collection rates and prudence.

The estimate needed to take in account of amounts that would be collected after the end of the financial year i.e. arrears. However, he added that it was difficult to predict a time when such arrears would actually physically be collected during the course of a given financial year or thereafter. It was therefore considered prudent to keep the estimated collection rate close to that actually expected to be realised in the year in question.

The Corporate Director - Resources went on to advise that BCBC had used 97% collection since 2009-10 and prior to that, 96.5% and in the early years of local government reorganisation a figure of 96% had been used. The collection rate achieved last year he confirmed had been 96.9%.

He advised that the higher the collection %, the lower the actual council tax would be. He further advised that other Welsh local authorities used a range of different % collection rates when setting their tax bases, but added that the approach that Bridgend had used in recent years had proven to be realistic in terms of the collection rate that was actually achievable.

The Corporate Director - Resources then responded positively to a number of questions from Members in relation to the report and attached Appendices ‘A’ and ‘B’, following which it was

RESOLVED: That Council approves the council tax base and collection rate for years 2010-11, as set out in the report.

277 APPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEE AND APPEAL COMMITTEE TO MAKE THE FUNCTIONS OF COUNCIL UNDER THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES (STANDING ORDERS) (WALES) REGULATIONS 2006

The Monitoring Officer presented a report, the purpose of which, was to ensure that the Council was duly prepared to undertake its functions in relation to the

179 COUNCIL - 2 DECEMBER 2009

above Regulations and to also ensure that actions under the Regulations were deemed to be taken in a timely, fair and insofar as was possible, open way.

The report commenced with some background information, and reminded that changes to the “Officer Employment Rules” within the Constitution had been approved in 2006, as a result of the operation of the above mentioned Regulations.

The Regulations provided that in respect of a limited number of exceptions, the appointment and dismissal (including redundancy and the need to effect new terms and conditions) of Officers was in the hands of the Chief Executive or her nominee.

The Monitoring Officer explained that Members also had a role in the employer appeal process, for example an Appeal made by an employee against dismissal or redundancy.

The Chief Executive’s nomination or delegation the report explained, was made to all Chief Officers within the general powers of the Scheme of Delegation.

The report then proceeded to advise that the Regulations provided a different set of rules to members of staff categorised in Paragraph 3.4 of the report, where in some of these cases, a Committee undertaking these functions should also have Cabinet Member representation.

The Monitoring Officer advised however, that as the Council at present did not have the ability to undertake these functions in respect of officers which are broadly members of CMB and Heads of Service, it was proposed that pending negotiations of an agreed procedure with Trade Unions a standard ‘natural justice’ process be applied, similar to that applied currently for all other employees, to be agreed where possible with the employee concerned.

The remainder of the report related to proposals by which to establish two Committee Panels to undertake the functions of Council under the above Regulations in respect of the Appeals process for such members of CMB and Heads of Service.

Arising from consideration of the report, it was

RESOLVED: That Council approves:-

(1) A natural justice procedure to be applied, to be agreed with the employee in advance where possible, pending negotiations of an agreed process with relevant Trade Unions.

(2) The appointment of a determining Committee to consist of three persons, with the Deputy Leader/Leader to be Chairperson and two further Members being drawn from the Appeals Panel, one being a Labour Member with the other being a Member of the Independent/Annibynwr Group.

(3) The appointment of an Appeal Committee to consist of three Members, the Chairperson to be the Leader/Deputy Leader (whichever has not previously chaired the first stage Committee in the same process) with one further Member drawn from Labour and one Member from the Liberal

180 COUNCIL - 2 DECEMBER 2009

Democrat Group, all to be drawn (with the exception of the Leader/Deputy Leader) from the existing Appeals Panel Members.

278 AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION AND SCHEMES OF DELEGATION OF FUNCTIONS

The Monitoring Officer submitted a report, which sought approval from Council to amend the Constitution and Schemes of Delegation to take account of revised legislation, as detailed in Paragraph 3.1 of the report.

This legislation would result in the following additions to Part 3 of the Constitution, Responsibility for Functions, to allow the Council’s Licensing Sub-Committee to determine the undermentioned type of applications:-

(i) Applications received in respect of the Legislative Reform (Minor Variations to Premises Licences and Club Premises Certificates) Order 2009.

(ii) Applications received in respect of the Legislative Reform (Supervision of Alcohol Sales in Church and Village Halls &c) Order 2009.

The amendment to 2.15 of Scheme B2 of the Schemes of Regulation would also be required to include similar information, by way of additional paragraphs (l) and (m), shown in detail in the second table outlined in Paragraph 3.2 of the report.

This matter the Monitoring Officer added, had been the subject of approval by the Licensing Committee at its meeting on 13 August 2009.

RESOLVED: That Council approves:-

(1) The amendment of Part 3 of the Constitution, Responsibility of Functions Section 2 (a) Licensing Sub-Committees, as set out in Paragraph 4.1 of the report.

(2) The amendment to the Schemes of Delegation of Functions as set out in Paragraph 4.2 of the report.

279 INFORMATION REPORTS AND MINUTES FOR NOTING

The Monitoring Officer reported to Council so as to advise Members of any information reports and minutes of other Council bodies for noting, published since its last ordinary meeting.

Details of these documents were outlined in Paragraphs 4.1 and 4.2 of the report accordingly.

RESOLVED: That Council both acknowledges and notes the publication of the above mentioned documents.

The meeting closed at 3.55pm.

181 COUNCIL - 2 DECEMBER 2009

182