From Community Council Minutes 1

Isn’t the custom of publishing minutes of meetings a really wonderful thing? It means that if you didn’t happen to be at a meeting, or can’t remember much about it, or think that someone else’s version of events might be a bit highly flavoured, you can grab the minutes and find out exactly what went on.

Of course minutes don’t have to describe everything that happens at a meeting. Do we really need to know at what point in a particularly impassioned appeal for peace, universal love, and harmony the chairman choked on his dentures, or why an elderly council member left so suddenly when the name of a certain young lady was mentioned by his aunt’s second cousin’s nephew (once removed) in connection with a controversial planning application for a new erection at Menhir Fawr? But of course proper minutes will aways describe the business under discussion in an accessible way, and keep those who were not fortunate enough to be present fully informed.

This is particularly important where a community council is concerned. After all Welsh Government guidelines require that councillors take steps to acquaint themselves with all shades of option in the community they represent, even those they may disagree with. They are also supposed to ensure that everyone’s views get a fair hearing, and obviously everyone should be able to find out if they are doing that.

Well, until quite recently, this way of doing things has been a bit patchy at Llanbedr. The community council, of course, holds all its meetings in Welsh – as it is perfectly entitled to do – and until about a year ago published all it’s minutes only in Welsh too, denying about 50% of the people in the community council area any simple means of finding out what they were up to.

Thankfully, all that’s changed now and the council is to be congratulated for publishing English translations of their minutes. Here is an example from their most recent effort:

 Access Road

 Again received correspondence regarding this issue. The e mail was read out and also the reply given by GD [if you have inside knowledge, GD can be identified as the council chairman, Goronwy Davies]. It was agreed that the Chairman had taken the appropriate actions and that his reply was correct. With the emphasis on good quality jobs for Llanbedr area and well paid jobs.

If the new access road does not progress, we as a community will be left with no on going development at the Airfield,

The Clerk asked – what is the opinion of the Council regarding the “Space Port”.

This was another matter, being a different project to the access road, and should be kept separately, and would however be out of the Council’s hands. Thus the same applies with the access road.

The Planning Application for the Access Road has been sent to the National Park Authority 17.3.17

But as yet we as Community Council have not received any information. It’s believed that the application has not yet been registered due to some issues arising.

As a Community Council we need to address the parking issues, but   this comes from another financial pot.

Also the need for roundabouts to be included in the plans. It was agreed to wait until we have the actual plans in hand, before responding. It is advisable to raise the parking issue with the County Council.

Llanbedr Community Council minutes: April 2017

 

Anyone who can explain what this means will win a magnum of champagne — kind of. Actually the bottle’s empty, as the editorial board of Protect Llanbedr was so astonished by the next item in the minutes that the whole lot had to be administered for medicinal purposes.

But that’s a story for another edition of From the Community Council Minutes.

2 thoughts on “From Community Council Minutes 1

  1. I notice that, at the time of writing, there is nothing on the Llanbedr Community Council web page to indicate that there have been changes to the membership of the council. The names of the new members, which have been known since the beginning of May are not listed although the names of the ex-members are.

  2. Dyn hyrt ywr Saes yma – coc oen

    [ADMIN: For those who do not speak Welsh, this comment is abusive, racist and obscene. However it will not be deleted as it says far more about the mentality of its author than about anyone with whom s/he apparently disagrees. It is interesting that the only two comments on this blog that object to its content – so far – have been abusive and without any attempt at rational argument.]

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