Meeting of HondduIsaf Community Council (CC) 6 March 2018
Present: Brian Davies (Chair), Brenig Prothero, Glenys WilliamsPatrick Vyvyan-Robinson, David Morris
Guest speaker: Roger Williams, County Councillor
Apologies: Paul Amphlett, Gareth Davies
- Matters arising from 5 December meeting.
1.1Llanerchwen overgrown hedges:
Action: Clerk sent follow-up email to Trevor Tame (PCC) but no further response received.
Action: Patrick awaiting opportunity to discuss with Mr Marshall.
1.2Blocked culverts:
Action: Clerk sent follow-up email to Trevor Tame (PCC) but no further response received.
2Finance
2.1The Precept request was submitted for £1,390
2.2Concerns expressed regarding admin demands placed on small community councils in relation to accounts preparation and annual audit and the escalating cost of audit. Roger Williams took note of the concerns.
3Correspondence
3.1General Data Protection Regulation
This regulation will be implemented by way of a new Data Protection Act and as a public body Honddu Isaf CC will be required to ensure that the requirements of the regulation are in place within Honddu Isaf Council by 25 May, 2018.
A guidance document / toolkit has been provided to assist implementation by the deadline.
Representations are being made to MPs about ensuring that the requirements of the new legislation are proportionate to the size of public bodies but until the Data Protection Act is passed by the UK Parliament it is not possible to state at this stage whether any changes will be made to reduce the burden on smaller councils. We will be kept informed of this development. Honddu Isaf will have to have a lead Data Protection Officer while the community council is responsible for compliance with data protection law, not the DPO.
Action: Clerk to fully understand requirements of the regulation, to keep CC informed and ensure processes are compliant.
3.2Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales Annual Report - February 2018
The report was discussed and the opportunity to remunerate community councillors including compensation for out of pocket expenses. The councillors were of the view that except in exceptional circumstances Honddu Isaf CC would not offer remuneration as this would require an increase in the Precept.
The report can be viewed at:
3.3Planning Consultation:
Application Ref: P/2018/0144
Grid Ref: 302443.79/236936.04 for Householder: Installation of a 1200L oil tank at 1 Castell Madoc Cottages, Lower Chapel, Brecon, Powys.
Clerk, following emailed consultation with CC members,had replied to PCC to confirm that CC has no objection to this application.
3.4One Voice Wales Community and Town Council Consultation Events – Next Steps
Seven consultation events had taken place during the early part of the winter regarding the Community and Town Council Review. All the events were well attended although Honddu Isaf CC had been unable to field a representative. Clerk fed in a short response on 8 December to the on-line questionnaire in relation to the 4 questions posed:
- What should Community and Town Councils be responsible for?
- How should they operate?
- What’s standing in their way to deliver for the local community?
- How do councils ensure they best represent their local community?
One Voice Wales is collating all the feedback received as well as taking evidence from other sources such as the One Voice Wales Manifesto, Business Plan, and recent Carnegie Trust Report on the Future of Towns, to produce a draft composite response from the sector to the panel. This will be distributed to all member Councils in spring 2018.
One Voice Wales will be liaising with Welsh Government to establish a formal engagement process with the Review Panel.
4Roger Williams, County Councillor
Roger addressed the meeting and provided an insight into Powys CC facts, figures and issues. Main points included:
- Road maintenance issues are often best addressed using local knowledge of the problems. CC can ask Trevor Tame (PCC roads officer) to accompany councillors to view problems.
- Estimate by PCC in 2011 that the cost of improving the unclassified roads to a minimum acceptable standard would be £8.5m and to a good standard £16m.
- County Councillors – 73 (30 independent, 21 Conservative, 13 Lib Dem, 6 Labour, 2 Plaid and 1 Green (only one in Wales)) now compared to 45 in 1981 but also district councils in place back then. Councillors provided with lots of training now. Rosemary Harries is Council Leader and Aled Davies is Deputy. Remaining 8 Cabinet members nominated by Leader and Deputy.
- Significant focus now on Children’s Services in the wake of the critical report last year. Prior to the report there were typically 120 to 160 children in care at any one time now the number has increased to between 210 and 220 and the cost has increased significantly. Inspection of adult services is now underway.
- PCC budget is tightening but expected a cut of £2.5m and the actual cut was £0.5m. Main cost is staff including teachers and highways maintenance. Powys population has the lowest income per capita after Blaenau Gwent due to many self employed but Powys has many properties in high Council Tax bands. Financial settlement is largely based on population – 132,000 people in Powys but projected to fall to 122,500 by 2035. All age groups are seeing a decline except 75 years old plus which is increasing.
- New school building programme funded out of central government budget but could question developments given the declining school population e.g. 25 children in Welsh stream in Brecon High School whereas 150 are needed to be cost effective.
- Planning – only 15 to 20% of applications go before committee. All the more straightforward (obviously compliant with regulations or very wide of the mark) are decided by Planning Officers. Strict protocol guides the operation of the Planning Committee – can’t speak to applicants or objectors and can only appraise the application in the meeting when all of the supporting information is available. New LDP will make it more difficult to secure planning for houses in villages. Affordable housing will be the priority generally.
- PCC would like community councillors to be community leaders.
- Roger offered to attend future meetings of Honddu Isaf CC whenever requested.
5AOB
Defibrillator – CC would like to progress the purchase of a defibrillator for installation in Lower Chapel village.
Action: Brenig to speak with medical contacts to determine cost and grants available.
Action: Brian to ask Paul to investigate cost and grants too.
Meeting closed at 21:29