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Councillors: Rose Seabourne (Chair) Alfie Best Catherine Bonera Ron Burnett Richard Clark (Deputy Leader) Lynda Clarkson Liam Cowles Fiona Cross David Daniels Giles Davies Steven Evans Karl Gauden Elizabeth Haynes Jon Horlor Nick Horler Anthony Hunt (Leader) Gaynor James Jon James Janet Jones Mark Jones Nick Jones Peter Jones Sue Malson Susan Morgan Amanda Owen Norma Parrish Caroline Price Alan Slade Chris Tew Colette Thomas David Thomas Jayne Watkins David Williams Lucy Williams Nathan Yeowell Officers: Nigel Aurelius, Assistant Chief Executive (Resources) Rachel Beale, Personal Assistant to the Leader and Deputy Leader Louise Day, Communications Manager Caroline Genever-Jones, Elections and Business Manager Delyth Harries, Monitoring Officer and Assistant Chief Legal Officer Steven Honeywill, Policy Officer – Engagement, Monitoring and Evaluation Rachel Jowitt, Chief Officer Neighbourhoods, Planning & Public Protection Dave Leech, Strategic Director – Digital and Communities Richard Lewis, Head of Development Management Lyndon Puddy, Head of Public Services Support Unit Dominique Redman, Deputy Team Leader Democratic and Member Services Tom Roberts, Senior Corporate Improvement and Scrutiny Officer Jason O’Brien, Chief Officer Social Care & Housing Nansi Salkeld, Head of Democratic Services Chris Slade, Senior Business Support Officer (Democratic Services) John Tushingham, Stephen Vickers, Chief Executive Adrian Wilcock, Principal Planner Kate Williams, Equalities, Cohesion and Community Safety Manager Others In Attendance: Major Oliver Stuart RA, Executive Officer ,104 Regiment Royal Artillery Major Pete Harrison RLC, SO2 Engagement, 160 (Welsh) Brigade Captain David Matthews RW, Regimental Operations Support Officer, 104 Regiment Royal Artillery Lynne Robinson, Gypsy Traveller Forum x6 pupils from West Mon Comprehensive School Cllr Alan Jones, Mayor - Blaenavon Town Council Cllr Stewart Matthews, Chair of Croesyceiliog & Llanyrafon Community Council Cllr Anthony Bird, Chair of Cwmbran Community Council Cllr Ian Danaher, Chair of Ponthir Community Council
2.1 Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Nick Byrne, Nick Simons, Jo Gauden, Stuart Ashley
3.1 The Monitoring Officer and Assistant Chief Legal Officer (MO&ALO) advised members that they should declare a personal interest if they were a member of a Community Council in relation to Agenda Item No 10, Economy and Skills Strategy, as a consultee. She also advised members that they should declare a personal interest in relation to Agenda Item 14, Community Council and Polling District/Place Review, if they were a member of a community council. There was no need to declare an interest in relation to family members being members of Community Councils. Members were also advised to declare a personal interest in relation to Agenda Item No 10 if they had any association with Coleg Gwent. The MO&ACLO advised members that if there were to enter into a debate or ask a specific question in relation to any other agenda items, they should consider whether they have an interest to declare at that particular time. The following Members declared personal interests in relation to Agenda Items 10 and 14: · Councillor Lynda Clarkson, as a member of Pontypool Community Council · Councillor Giles Davies, as a member of Pontypool Community Council · Councillor Jon Horlor, as a member of Pontypool Community Council · Councillor Gaynor James, as a member of Pontypool Community Council · Councillor Jon James, as a member of Pontypool Community Council · Councillor Rosemary Matthews, as a member of Pontypool Community Council · Councillor Caroline Price, as a member of Pontypool Community Council · Councillor Ron Burnett, as a member of Henllys Community Council · Councillor Colette Thomas, as a member of Henllys Community Council · Councillor David Williams, as a member of Croesyceiliog & Llanyrafon Community Council · Councillor Peter Jones, as a member of Cwmbran Community Council · Councillor Sue Morgan, as a member of Cwmbran Community Council · Councillor Liam Cowles, as a member of Blaenavon Town Council
4.1 Council confirmed the minutes of the Council meeting held on 4 October 2022 were confirmed as an accurate record.
5.1 Council noted the action sheet.
6.1 Councillor Elizabeth Haynes presented a petition on behalf of Torfaen Resident, James Miller in relation to Parc Celyn Public Areas, as follows: ‘We, the undersigned, wish to bring to the Councils attention a totally unacceptable situation at the Parc Celyn Development in Cwmbran. It is our understanding that the development was granted under the provision that the builder, Taylor Wimpey, should provide public recreational areas for the general public’s usage. These public recreation areas will not be adopted by Torfaen Council, and instead, the management and upkeep responsibilities of them have been passed to a management company "Remus" who pass the costs on to the residents of the development (currently around £140 per house, per year). We are already experiencing many incidents of anti-social behaviour occurring late into the evening, including drinking, drugs and noise, many being people from outside of the development. The situation is totally unacceptable to many residents as we already pay full Council Tax to cover public spaces. We argue that if the Council is unwilling to manage these areas and expect us to burden the cost, then the Council should consider a tax reduction for the local residents as we are unfairly paying twice for the same facilities and we consider this a great inequality and total unfairness on the Council's part. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that there are a number of Housing Association areas in Wales where public land has been transferred over from the Council. Some research shows us that no housing association tenant pays any additional charge towards publicly accessible land owned by the Housing Associations. What is the difference here? We ask that the Council adopt the publicly accessible recreational areas on the development.’ 6.2 Council referred the petition to Councillor Mandy Owen, Executive Member Environment, for her to consider, respond and report back in due course.
7.1 There were no public questions
The Leader paid tribute to a great community volunteer Chris Campbell who had recently passed away. He conveyed his thoughts and best wishes to his family, commenting that Chris Campbell was a good friend to many, who worked in many parts of the community, on matters such as anti-poverty and community support work and on wider race equality work, and also the Armed Forces. 8.2 The Leader welcomed Lynne Robinson and 6 pupils from West Mon School who would be giving a presentation on the Gypsy Traveller Education Service and the importance of their education. During the presentation, the following main points were made: · Members were encouraged to do all they could to support the education of the young people and they were welcomed to attend an open day scheduled to take place next summer which would provide an opportunity to see some of the work being undertaken by the children. · The Council were thanked for investing their time and energy into the community. · There were many ongoing projects which were keeping the young people engaged. · Members were welcomed to purchase poppies made by the children who would be presenting a cheque to the Royal British Legion in Blaenavon on 17 November 2022. · Since the pandemic, approximately 10 pupils had chosen elective home education and there was a need to re-engage with these young people to discuss the KS4 curriculum and bespoke timetables that were available to meet their needs. 8.3 Members thanked Lynne for her work and dedication, and congratulated the children on their commitment, dedication and achievements. 8.4 The Chief Executive reminded members of the pre-engagement session being held in The Mayor’s Parlour until 2pm to share the initial outcome of the review of 30mph zones, having applied Welsh Governments guidance as to what might become 20mph zones. He informed Members of the Council Policy Seminar scheduled to take place on 7 November to discuss this matter. He assured members and residents that there would be plenty of opportunity for them to input into the consultation and details of this would be announced later in the year.
9.1 The Leader stated that in 2013, Torfaen County Borough Council signed the Armed Forces Covenant in recognition of the sacrifices made by the military, and in order to provide them with the appropriate support. He stated that the signing of the Covenant reinforces this pledge and ensures that members of the Armed Forces community and veterans are not disadvantaged. He stated that it was an honour to witness the Town and Community Councils of the Borough in their first signing of the Covent today, and that it was a privilege to welcome the Armed Forces Representatives. He was proud of Borough’s strong links with the Army, the Navy and The Royal Air Force and some of the young men who had paid the ultimate price of defending their Country. 9.2 The Leader called upon Major Oliver Stuart who stated that it was a real honour to be in attendance today to sign the Armed Forces Covenant. He stated that this was a symbolic and real act which showed the deep links between the Armed Forces nationally and locally, and with the regiments and soldiers that lived within the communities serving for them and with them. 9.3 The Leader called upon each Community Council Representative to sign the covenant in turn, and conveyed apologies from the Leader of Pontypool Community Council and Henllys Community Council who were unable to attend in person today but would be signing the covenant later in the week. He thanked those that had attended to mark the occasion.
The Strategic Director, Communities & Digital introduced the report and explained that, further to Cabinet having approved the presentation of the strategy to Council at its meeting on 18th October, Council are asked to approve the Economy and Skills Strategy as presented in Appendix 2 and outlined within the report. 10.2 In summary, officers responded to questions by members as follows: · Efforts had been made to integrate all of the components that would support economic development into the design of this strategy. The previous strategy was set in a different context and was purely an economy and enterprise strategy, whereas this strategy also drew together skills and regeneration. · Focusing on places where businesses would go, creating an attractive environment for those places and providing business support packages and skills, were all components that would help businesses grow. The strategy separated out support so that it could be targeted more effectively. · There was no change in the direction of The British project. In the future there may be opportunities to consider the environment that exists and whether there are opportunities to explore, such as creation of activities relating to forestry and job opportunities. However, the report was only highlighting the potential around this. · There had been a substantial shift in relation to the office market as a result of COVID. It was still too early to say if homeworking was going to be a long-term trend or if people would start returning to the office. Plans were ongoing to work with private landlords to consider opportunities to bring sites back into use. · The action plan included specific actions to work more closely with apprenticeship partners and the pathways for employability programme. Ways to support people into digital employment were also being considered. · Work was ongoing around joining up attractions throughout the Borough and to present a package to promote to visitors. · If there was interest from companies, the council would explore working with them to run events similar to one previously run by the Employability Team in the Congress Theatre which offered advice on how to start a business. · The Employability Team was successful in looking at skills and matching those skills into employment vacancies. It was recognised that since COVID, a lot of people had moved out of the labour market. This was a national issue and consideration was being given around how to support people who were economically inactive back into the labour market. Each person’s motivation was different and related to personal situations, therefore engagement and support would be offered on a case by case basis. · In terms of the use of existing properties, there were parts of the economy that needed to see growth in premises and space, and this was well aligned to discussions around the Local Development Plan and growth in some of the business premises. · It was recognised that the authority needed to work closely with landlords of existing properties and there was a workstream taking place on this competitive side, looking at how to better link properties to the springboard network, particularly with landlords who were engaging in innovative activity. · The authority had consulted and engaged extensively with the economic forum throughout the development of the strategy. The business community mostly talked about the need to get the strategy delivered and acted upon, with the flexibility to appropriately review processes as there would be times throughout the cycle of the strategy where change would be required. · There would be a number of factors outside of the authority’s control that would influence the economy in Torfaen. Therefore a continual review was important. It was therefore suggested that the strategy be reviewed annually by the executive member, based on a delivery plan that would be assessed quarterly by officers. · Considerable work was needed around skills feeding into companies, and consideration was being given around how to work more closely with Coleg Gwent, apprenticeship providers and work experience programmes. Some of these skills providers sat on the strategic economic forum. · Priority sector pathways would channel people through the employability programme at the appropriate sector. · With regards to linking businesses to the support available, a single point of contact for businesses who were looking to engage with the council was in development. This would ensure a clear front door for businesses to get access to the right team quickly, and for businesses to be looked at wholistically and linked to other businesses where they might benefit from connections. 10. Council unanimously agreed to approve the Economy and Skills Strategy as presented in Appendix 2 and outlined within the report.
11.1 The Chief Executive outlined the report seeking approval of the Annual Self-Assessment and Wellbeing Report for 2021/22, as attached as Appendix 1 to the report. He thanked officers for their input into the report. 11.2 In summary, officers responded to questions asked by members as follows: · Improvement was required across schools in respect of supporting them across a wide range of areas, including those not in education or employment (NEETs) and bullying. Nobody wanted to see schools in decline and the challenges had been recognised as part of continuous improvement around the Post Inspection Action Plan and the Children’s Service Development Plan. · As a small local authority, the school cohort was relatively small, The percentage of around 2% in relation to NEETs was around 20 to 30 young people normally, however, this varied year by year. 11.3 Council unanimously agreed to approve the Annual Self-Assessment and Wellbeing Report for 2021/22, as attached in Appendix 1 to the report.
The Principal Planner outlined the report seeking approval of the 2022 Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) of the Torfaen Local Development Plan (LDP) for its submission to the Welsh Government (WG) on or before the 31st October 2022. 12.2 Officers clarified that the table of Section 106 contributions included on page 162 of the agenda was a summary 2021/22. A much fuller report would be considered by scrutiny in due course. 12.3 Council unanimously agreed to: (i) Approve the Torfaen Local Development Plan Annual Monitoring Report 2022 (attached at Appendix A to the report) and its submission to the Welsh Government on or before the 31st October 2022; and (ii) To delegate any final minor amendments of the Annual Monitoring Report 2022 to the Head of Planning and Development prior to submission to the Welsh Government.
13.1 Councillor Peter Jones, Executive Member Corporate Governance & Performance introduced the report. He explained that scrutiny had recently looked at this report in detail and although there was more work to do, good progress had been made with the report. He thanked officers across the organisation for their work in embedding equality right across the council. The Policy, Partnerships and Equalities Manager highlighted the key areas of the report which provided Council with the annual report for 2021 - 2022 and Torfaen Council’s progress on its Strategic Equality Plan. 13.2 Council unanimously agreed to note the content and approve the 2021 – 2022 annual progress report on the Council’s Strategic Equality Plan as set out in Appendix 1 to the report.
14.1 The Elections Manager outlined the report seeking approval to: · carry out a whole authority community council review and to establish a task and finish group to assist in the development of the terms or reference for the review; and · commence a review of polling districts and polling places for the whole of Torfaen. 14.2 In response to questions asked by members, the following points were noted: · Members interested in sitting on the Task and Finish Group to progress the Community Council review should email the Elections Manager with an expression of interest; · The Polling District review would go straight out for public consultation following Council approval; · It would be more appropriate for just County Borough Councillors to sit on the Task and Finish Group 14.3 Council unanimously agreed to approve: · The commencement of a Community Council Review and establishment of a task and finish group to progress the review · The commencement of a polling district and polling places review
15.1 The Presiding Member informed members that this item was deferred until the Council meeting scheduled to take place on 6 December 2022.
16.1 The Project Officer Democratic Services outlined the report informing Council of the change agreed by the Chief Executive and the Leader, under delegated powers, to a member nominated to serve on the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service at the AGM in May this year 16.2 Council unanimously agreed to note that Councillor Alfie Best had replaced Councillor Sue Malson on the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service for the remainder of the 2022/23 municipal year.
17.1 There were no motions on notice
18.1 Member questions with replies are set out in Appendix A to these minutes.
19.1 The next meeting was scheduled for Tuesday 6 December 2022 at 10.00am.
20.1 Council unanimously agreed to note the Cabinet Decisions.
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