Council Tax Up - Trust In Gwynedd Council Down...

The full council of cyngor Gwynedd met on the 5th March, 2026. 
The agenda pack for the meeting can be found here - 
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g5675/Public%20reports%20pack%2005th-Mar-2026%2013.30%20The%20Council.pdf?T=10

Council tax increase...
The Plaid Cymru council passed -
A budget of £379,701,110 should be set for 2026/27, to be funded by £264,009,390 of Government Grant and £115,691,720 of Council Tax income (which is an increase of 4.75% baseline plus a further 0.42% to meet the levy from the North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority, giving a total of 5.17%). 

Chief officers pay will increase... 
In July 2025 confirmation was received that the employers and the unions that represent chief officers had agreed on a pay increase for 2025/26, that being an increase of 3.2% on the pay of each chief officer. 

Council pension pot...
Is doing very well indeed.

Councillors also passed -
Amendments to the Members Code of Conduct and The Councils Whistle Blowing Policy, authored by the monitoring officer, Iwan G D Evans. 

But staff have said they do not feel safe to whistleblow and no amount of amendments will change that. From an Internal Audit Plan by Luned Fon Jones, published in early 2025 - 


Jones' full report can be found on page 138 in the agenda pack - 
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g5293/Public%20reports%20pack%2006th-Feb-2025%2010.00%20Governance%20and%20Audit%20Committee.pdf?T=10

According to the minutes, those present at that meeting were - 



On repeat...
Have any cabinet members raised concerns at meetings or with other councillors?
What action, if any, has been taken by the legal team?
It is the same with other audits of the whistle blowing policy - going back many years -

From 2011 - 
Authored by Dewi Morgan, then senior audit and risk manager - 
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/Data/Audit%20Committee/20110113/Agenda/05_01_Awareness%20of%20the%20Whistleblowing%20Policy.pdf

Observations from staff in 2011 include - 
“Would be too afraid of the consequences.”
“No faith in the Council’s confidentiality.”
“When whistleblowing, you have to face the consequences.”
“Afraid of repercussions from Line Manager.”

Culture culture culture...
It is not the policy that is lacking...
There appears to be a complete lack of trust in senior officers and a fear for confidentiality and retribution.
After the Neil Foden case, perhaps the policy should be ripped up and given to an external body for staff safety. 
                                                      ****************

Two questions had been accepted by the monitoring officer for discussion.
The first by Gwynfor Owen, asking for support for a memorial in Harlech for Catrin, daughter of Glyndŵr, was given support by the cabinet member for the Econonmy, Richard Medwyn Hughes.

A question by Beca Brown, the former cabinet member for Education, who resigned after the Neil Foden case, asked - 

 

Why Brown has asked this question five years after Audit Wales raised concerns is unknown.
Both questions in full can be found here - 
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=48517

A prepared script..?
Brown's question was answered by cabinet member for corporate services, councillor Llio Elenid Owen. The councillor's supplementary question was also answered by Owen, reading from her laptop. It is not usual that the supplementary question is known in advance...

There were two NOTICE OF MOTION accepted by the council and passed at the meeting - 
One by Councillor Gruffydd Williams -
That this Council is totally opposed to the Digital Identification system and that Cyngor Gwynedd calls on the Welsh Government to oppose DI in line with the Government in Scotland and also in line with several local authorities across the UK. Convenience should never come at the expense of personal liberty...

No kidding...
The second Notice by Councillor Elin Hywel begins -
This Council recognises that trust is the foundation of democracy.
We know that recent events locally, nationally and internationally have undermined that relationship with the people of Gwynedd...

Trojan horse...
The discussion by councillors was more animated than has been seen in a long time.
Plaid Cymru councillor Dewi Jones, wondered if independent councillors were truly independent or if any were conservatives or reformers in disguise...
 
Deflection...
Jones may have been trying to divert attention from the former Plaid Cymru councillor, Iwan Huws, who attempted to defraud his employer, Anglesey council.  Huws escaped prosecution by accepting a police caution. Is that usual for employees?
Huws is the brother of the Plaid MS for Arfon.

Sshh...
Whilst the 'Our Bravery Brought Justice' report was mentioned several times, no councillor asked about the senior officer from the legal department, present at the safeguarding meeting re Neil Foden, in 2019. What legal advice was given re concerns raised by the whistleblower? 

The Ffordd Gwynedd way..?
A reminder that Garem Jackson, the former head of education, said he was 'advised' by a safeguarding officer to simply have a word with Foden re his closeness to some girls. The whistleblower was also outed to Foden.

The webcast of the meeting can be viewed here - 
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/1073997
For the translated feed press the english tab on the top left of the page. 

Singing from the same hymn sheet..?
Why was chair of the response board, Sally Holland, not in attendance?
She meets with cabinet members but not ordinary councillors..?
A reminder that cabinet members may be whipped not to ask embarrassing questions. 

Questions questions...
Has Estyn or Care Inspectorate Wales appeared before councillors? 
What of the two senior police officers who sat as school governors at Ysgol Friars?
Is there to be a public inquiry..?

The Pickles 'extended' child practice review found failings over many departments. 
Were any of the survivors in foster care?
Where is the report from the fostering team?
Where is the report from the education/economy scrutiny task and finish group - already overdue by many months? 

Something is so very wrong within Gwynedd council... 

 

 

 

 

 

Cyngor Gwynedd Council - One Child In Care Costing £25,000 A Week...

Cyngor Gwynedd council held a meeting of their Governance and Audit Committee on Thursday, 16th January, 2025. It was not webcast and so not available for viewing later by councillors and the public.

The agenda pack can be found here - 
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g5292/Public%20reports%20pack%2016th-Jan-2025%2010.00%20Governance%20and%20Audit%20Committee.pdf?T=10

A member of the committee raised concerns that the Plaid Cymru councillor, Dafydd Meurig, was not in attendance at the meetings...

The minutes of the previous meeting contain -  
           
Many people would challenge this statement especially in light of recent complaints that have avoided proper scrutiny. 

As the committee are probably not aware of these complaints pushed through via the cabinet they simply accepted the report...

It was believed that the performance of cyngor Gwynedd's information department in dealing with FOI requests was to be discussed. The agenda simply informs -
Note: Freedom of Information Requests Audit –
a request to consider that the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 are addressed by the Committee – the Committee to receive an annual report setting out the Council's Arrangements to deal with Freedom of Information matters.

Under the 'Implementing The Decisions Of The Committee, in relation to the -
REVENUE BUDGET 2024/25 - END OF AUGUST 2024 REVIEW -

The intention was for the Statutory Director of Social Services to provide an update during the 28/11/24
Committee on the work involved with the overspend in the Department for Adults, Health and Wellbeing.
Due to IT issues during the meeting, the Director was unable to report. The intent is for him to present/report in the next committee.
An update on the current situation - the outcome of the end of November 2024 review will be reported in a
separate item on the Committee's programme.

The director did inform the meeting that one child was costing the council £25,000 a week (£1.25 million a year). Huw Dylan Owen also made mention that one child was living in a caravan. The audio was not great for this part of the conversation.

One committee member asked questions of the director - the director did not answer them...
Towards the end of the meeting, the chair did bring attention to this and told the member that she would ensure the questions were answered albeit outside of the meeting.

The Capital Programme was discussed, along with the Savings Overview and the Forward Work Programme. The Audit Wales report was also presented.

Dewi Morgan, the council's head of finance appeared to take a swipe at the officer in attendance from Wales Audit, complaining that the media channel S4C had read the report and presumably raised concerns with the figures. Once again, the audio for this section was poor...

The Wales Audit officer simply responded by telling Morgan that the figures used were those that Morgan himself had supplied....

The committee also heard concerns from a member that the planning committee was refusing applications for social housing in the Llyn area and that their decisions were putting schools in the area at risk. The chair thanked the councillor for raising the issue.

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...

 

Cyngor Gwynedd Council - Collective Amnesia...

Cyngor Gwynedd council held a Governance and Audit Committee on Thursday, 8th February 2024. Unlike most other meetings of this committee, this one was webcast and can be found here -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/852366
Yet again, the translated feed is not working. This happens too often to be an error...

It was notable that the minutes of the previous meeting could not be presented...
Geraint Owen, the former Head of Democratic Services and now an executive director of the council, began by asking the committee not to scrutinise the reports...

The first report up is authored by Dewi Morgan, Head of Finance. His report is based on the Intenal Audit Section published last year by Luned Fon Jones which can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/documents/s38031/OUTPUT%20OF%20THE%20INTERNAL%20AUDIT%20SECTION.pdf

At last years meeting, a service improvement group was elected to look into three main areas of concern -
Staff retention (exit interviews)
The Liberty Protection Safeguards formerly Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards DOLS
Smallholdings.

An excerpt from last years report -

Last years meeting discussed a possible rent increase for smallholdings. The committee, along with the Audit Wales officers in attendance will remember that Carys Edwards, a lay member, had to leave the meeting during the discussion on the rent increases as she herself lives in a smallholding rented from the council.

After the discussion ended and the lay member returned, the committee then elected her to the service improvement group totally ignoring the obvious conflict of interest...

Staff retention was a major concern for last years meeting and the exit interviews were deemed crucial to discover why staff were leaving the council and the SS departments in particular.

Dewi Morgan's latest report makes no reference to exit interviews - he now calls them 'Planning - Communication Arrangements'. He writes that 'plans are in place to re-establish the working group but no meeting has taken place so far...'

Why Gwynedd council's Head of Finance has altered the wording is unclear as is the reason for disbanding the improvement group in the first place. More importantly, are the committee no longer interested in staff retention? - have they all just given up?

The Estyn report was also discussed and yet another meeting that did not mention the arrest of school teachers and the effect that will have on school performance and the well being of pupils...
Estyn does comment that -

It would be interesting to discover how many of the 275 children looked after by Gwynedd council regularly miss school. Also how many of those with ALN/SEN are marked as absent?
Perhaps the exclusion officer could be asked for the information...?
Perhaps not...

The agenda pack for this meeting along with the reports sans minutes can be found here -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g4963/Public%20reports%20pack%2008th-Feb-2024%2010.30%20Governance%20and%20Audit%20Committee.pdf?T=10

Something is so very, very wrong within Gwynedd council...