Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors P. Cooper, C. Davies, LL. M. Davies, D. Nicholas and J. Seward

The Chair reported that she had the previous week, together with Councillor Edward Thomas, visited a lady in Llandeilo celebrating her 112^th birthday.

The Cabinet Member for Rural Affairs, Community Cohesion and Planning Policy advised the Council that the consultation periods relating to Green Gen’s Towy/Teify Pylon Line and the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Farming scheme were coming to an end and she urged members to feed into the process for both those consultations.

RESOLVED that Councillor H.L. Davies be nominated Chair Elect of Carmarthenshire County Council for the 2024/25 Municipal Year.

RESOLVED that Councillor D. Jones be nominated Vice-Chair Elect of Carmarthenshire County Council for the 2024/25 Municipal Year.

The Council received a report, presented by the Cabinet Member for Resources, setting out the financial details relevant to the setting of the Council Tax for the 2024/2025 financial year together with the Council Tax amounts in respect of the different Council Tax Valuation Bands, as applicable to each of the individual Community and Town Council areas.

It was noted that the recommendations contained within the report brought together the authority’s budget requirement and the precepts for the Police Authority and the Town and Community Councils into the consolidated Council Tax amounts in respect of the individual Council Tax Valuation bands.

RESOLVED that, in order for the Council to comply with legislative requirements, the report and recommendations of the Director of Corporate Services on the setting of the Council Tax for the financial year 2024/25 be adopted.

[NOTE:

1.    Councillors J.M. Charles, D.M. Cundy, A. Davies, B. Davies, C.A. Davies, T. Davies, T.A.J. Davies, A. Evans, D.C. Evans, N.  Evans, R.E. Evans, S. Godfrey-Coles, J. Hart, T. Higgins, P.M. Hughes, R. James, A.C. Jones, H. Jones. A. Leyshon, M.J.A. Lewis, K. Madge, M. Palfreman, W.E. Skinner, E. Rees, B.A.L. Roberts, and F. Walters had earlier declared interests in this item and, left the meeting;

2.    All officers in attendance were deemed to have a personal interest in this item and left the meeting prior to its consideration with the exception of the Democratic Services Manager, Democratic Services Officer and officers who were facilitating the webcasting of the meeting.

3.    As the Cabinet Member for Organisation and Workforce had declared an interest in this item and left the meeting, the Leader of the Council presented the report on his behalf)

4.    As the Chair of Council, Councillor B.AL. Roberts, had declared an interest in this item, the Vice Chair chaired the meeting during the report’s consideration.

The Leader of the Council, on behalf of the Cabinet Member for Organisation and Workforce, presented the report which outlined that under the provisions of the Localism Act 2011, all Local Authorities were required to prepare a Pay Policy Statement which must be agreed and published by the 1^st April every year. The Statement required the approval of full Council and had to set out the Authority’s policies for the financial year relating to the remuneration of its Chief Officers, its lowest paid employees and the relationship between the remuneration of its Chief Officers and its employees who were not Chief Officers.

It was reported that the politically balanced Pay Policy Advisory Panel had had input into the formulation of the Pay Policy Statement and its recommendations had been incorporated into the final document for approval by County Council that day. It was reported that at its meeting the previous year, the Panel had requested that options be put forward for reviewing the existing NJC pay model and removing grade overlaps, particularly at the bottom of the pay scale. In accordance with that request, a separate paper (attached to the report) detailed 2 proposals for removing the overlaps between Grades A to D and A to E together with costings. The Pay Panel, at its meeting on the 20th February 2024, had considered both options, in the context of the challenging financial climate, and agreed to introduce proposal 1 (i.e. to remove the overlaps from Grades A to D inclusive) in April 2025, if financially viable to do so. That recommendation was to be discussed at the forthcoming Trade Union Joint Consultative Forum in April 2024.

Council was further advised that in addition to the commitment already given in relation to the Foundation Living wage rates of pay, the Authority was also minded to revise its apprenticeship pay to reflect the rate for the job. If adopted, that would help address the Council’s commitment to support its lowest paid  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

In response to a question on the Revenue Budget Strategy and the current deficit budgets being faced by a number of primary and secondary schools within the County, the Council was advised that the situation with school budgets was particularly fluid at the moment and would become clearer as they set their budgets over the coming weeks.

RESOLVED that the report of the meeting of the Cabinet held on the 19^th February, 2024 be received.

"School bus services are essentially for ensuring our pupils can safely travel to school and help alleviate congestion from the thousands of individual car journeys each day.

In February, local members were informed that the L23, L24 and L27 bus services in Llanelli had been cancelled when the local provider took the difficult decision to withdraw their provision. This is not an isolated case neither in Carmarthenshire nor Wales, yet it is imperative that we take action to ensure that every children has the right and access to school bus services in Carmarthenshire.

This Council:

-        Calls on the Cabinet to develop a new plan for ensuring that every pupil in Carmarthenshire has the right and ability to access reliable school bus services.

-        Believes that an emergency summit should be held with the remaining private providers to assess the viability of all routes and consider whether there are opportunities to bring routes back.

-        Calls on the Welsh Government to urgently publish their newest review on the Learner Travel Measure and lobby for pupils living within 3 miles of a comprehensive school to also be supported to travel on a bus to school"

(NOTE: Councillor S.L. Davies had earlier declared an interest in this item)

Council considered the following Notice of Motion submitted by Councillors Rob James and Dot Jones:-

"School bus services are essentially for ensuring our pupils can safely travel to school and help alleviate congestion from the thousands of individual car journeys each day.

In February, local members were informed that the L23, L24 and L27 bus services in Llanelli had been cancelled when the local provider took the difficult decision to withdraw their provision. This is not an isolated case neither in Carmarthenshire nor Wales, yet it is imperative that we take action to ensure that every children has the right and access to school bus services in Carmarthenshire.

This Council:

·         Calls on the Cabinet to develop a new plan for ensuring that every pupil in Carmarthenshire has the right and ability to access reliable school bus services.

·         Believes that an emergency summit should be held with the remaining private providers to assess the viability of all routes and consider whether there are opportunities to bring routes back.

·         Calls on the Welsh Government to urgently publish their newest review on the Learner Travel Measure and lobby for pupils living within 3 miles of a comprehensive school to also be supported to travel on a bus to school"

The Motion was duly seconded.

The proposer and seconder of the Motion were afforded the opportunity of speaking in support thereof and outlined the reasons for its submission, as set out in the Motion.

A number of statements were made in support of and against the Motion

RESOLVED that the Motion be not supported.

The Chair advised that no public questions had been received.

“Could the Council please state how many roads in Carmarthenshire, previously designated as 30mph roads, have been changed to 20mph both as a number and percentage; and what is this Authority’s stance on supporting enforcement of the policy?”

“Could the Council please state how many roads in Carmarthenshire, previously designated as 30mph roads, have been changed to 20mph both as a number and percentage; and what is this Authority’s stance on supporting enforcement of the policy?”

Response by Councillor Edward Thomas – Cabinet Member for Transport, Waste and Infrastructure Services

The introduction of Welsh Government’s legislation The Restricted Roads (20mph Speed Limit)(Wales) Order 2022 obliged local authorities to implement default 20mph speed limits on all restricted roads in Wales in place of the previous 30mph default limit.  Restricted roads are legally defined within the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 as roads with a system of street lighting in place.  This generally applies to the majority of roads within Carmarthenshire’s towns and most villages.  To implement the new default limit, larger urban areas and settlements, local authorities had to change only the speed limit signs on the boundary of the area to automatically include all of the restricted roads within. However, there is complexity within this to acknowledge.

There are a number of roads, for example the A484 from Llanelli through Carmarthen and on to Newcastle Emlyn, which now have numerous sections of 20mph through settlement areas such as Sandy Road, Burry Port, Carmarthen town and Newcastle Emlyn, but higher speed limits between the settlements.  As a consequence, one single road may have many lengths which have defaulted from 30mph to 20mph.    To answer the question, an analysis of data within our mapping system indicates there to be 2567 lengths of road with street lighting defaulted to 20mph.  However, it should also be acknowledged that of these 2567 lengths, at least 300 lengths of road were already subject to 20mph restrictions prior to the legislation in the Llanelli area alone.  Where existing 20mph limits were previously in place by virtue of a Traffic Regulation Order, the Orders had to be revoked to enable the wider legislation restriction to take precedence.  In total 76 Traffic Regulation Orders had to be revoked which each Order covering single or groups of streets.

One of the key aims of the County Council in implementing the legislation was to provide consistency for road users.  In a number of instances, particular roads had streetlighting only over part of its length.  This typically occurred towards the settlement boundary where development extended beyond the limit of the street lighting. In such cases, a Traffic Regulation Order was required to extend the 20mph limit to the commencement of the settlement area so that road users were presented with a clear understanding that they were entering into an urban environment.  There were 417 lengths of road treated in this way through a Traffic Regulation Order.

Local authorities in Wales were advised by Welsh Government that they could make exceptions of the default 20mph limit to retain a 30mph in particular circumstances and Welsh Government provided guidance for local authorities to follow when assessing the potential for certain roads to be exceptions.  Within Carmarthenshire, Orders were created for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.1

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 4(2) the following nomination has been delivered to the Chief Executive

Councillor Robert Evans – Labour Group

No other nominations have been received.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that Councillor R.E Evans be elected Chair of the Communities, Homes and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee.

1.    Councillor Michael Thomas to take the vacant seat on the Planning Committee.

2.    Councillor Peter Cooper to take the vacant seat on the Dyfed PensionFund Committee

3.    Councillor Tina Higgins to take the vacant seat on the Constitutional Review Working Group

RESOLVED that the following changes proposed by the Labour Group to the membership of Committees and Panels be approved:

·       Councillor Michael Thomas to take the vacant seat on the Planning Committee.

·       Councillor P. Cooper to take the vacant seat on the Dyfed Pension Fund Committee.

·       Councillor Tina Higgins to take the vacant seat on the Constitutional Review Working Group.