Cyngor Gwynedd Communities Scrutiny Committee met on Thursday, 13th July 2023.
Yet another meeting beset with 'technical issues' and translation problems.
The leader of the council, Dyfrig Siencyn, was to present the Annual Report of the Gwynedd and Anglesey Public Services Board 2022-23 -
https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/s38421/Annual%20Report%20of%20the%20Gwynedd%20and%20Anglesey%20Public%20Services%20Board%202022-23.pdf
The report lacks detail of the Board's work and committee members would have had many questions for the council leader. Mr Siencyn instead sent his apologies and did not attend the meeting.
Concerns were raised that the documents of the board's meetings were absent from it's own wesbsite and committee members asked how there could be proper scrutiny without them. An officer blamed admin for the site not being updated...
After a break to sort out more technical issues, a motion was raised that the meeting should be stopped. The motion was voted down and so 'scrutiny' continued...
There was discussion on the board's climate change subgroup and questions were asked to the meaning of net zero. One councillor reminded the meeting that CO2 is food for plants...
Questions were asked of the electric buses that should have been running since February. It was reported that Gwynedd council have three such buses but they can not be used. The officer blamed Scottish Power for the lack of infrastructure. Range anxiety was also mentioned.
The Welsh Government may have handed over four electric buses to the council - but technical difficulties made following the conversation difficult. Gwynedd council have since uploaded both the english and Welsh translations but there is a discrepancy with one being shorter in length -
https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/792005
Concerns were raised that bus services were already failing residents in outlying villages. It was revealed that due to 'issues' there will be even less buses running after 6pm. Will those issues be with the young people who had their youth clubs closed by Gwynedd council?
One councillor compared the plans to a 'slow motion car crash whilst laughing along the way...'
The reports were still accepted by the committee.
In other news, the council's bin collections are still a cause for concern.
Also the funding from Welsh Government for public transport during the pandemic will no longer be available from early next year.
Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...
