Agenda, decisions and draft minutes
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- Agenda reports pack
- OUTCOME OF PARTNERSHIPS SCRUTINY COMMITTEE'S REVIEW OF CABINET'S DECISION RELATING TO THE PUBLIC CONVENIENCES SAVINGS PROPOSAL - LOCAL NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND DRAFT LOCA TOILET STRATEGY
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- Printed decisions
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- Printed draft minutes
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Venue: Council Chamber, County Hall, Ruthin and by video conference
Media
Webcast: View the webcast
No. | Item |
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APOLOGIES Additional documents: Decision: Councillor Delyth
Jones, Lead Member for Finance Minutes: Councillor Delyth
Jones, Lead Member for Finance |
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DECLARATION OF INTERESTS Members to declare any personal or prejudicial interests in any business identified to be considered at this meeting. Additional documents: Decision: No declarations of interest had been raised. Minutes: No declarations of interest had been raised. |
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URGENT MATTERS Notice of
items which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be considered at the meeting
as a matter of urgency pursuant to Section 100B(4) of the
Local Government Act 1972. Additional documents: Decision: Minutes: |
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To receive the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 29 April 2025 (copy enclosed). Additional documents: Decision: RESOLVED that, subject to
an investigation into the accuracy point raised by Councillor Brian Jones, the
minutes of the meeting held on 29 April 2025 be received and confirmed as a
correct record. Minutes: The minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on
29 April 2025 were submitted. Matters
Arising – Item 5 Public Conveniences Savings Proposal – Local Needs
Assessment and Draft Local Toilet Strategy – ·
Councillor
Julie Matthews sought an update on work carried out to secure replacement
provision/and or retain existing provision of public conveniences since the
last meeting but as the matter was a substantive item next on the agenda, she
would raise the issue at that time rather than under the minute item ·
Councillor
Arwel Roberts referred to an inaccurate media report after the last Cabinet
meeting when “met with silence” had been quoted when referring to St. Asaph,
Rhuddlan and Dyserth City/Town/Community Councils which was untrue with those
councils having responded to the Council in this matter. He asked that an apology be sought on behalf
of those councils from the reporter concerned. The Leader agreed to discuss the
matter with the Deputy Monitoring Officer with a view to making representations
to the reporter in that regard ·
Councillor
Brian Jones referred to the webcast of the last Cabinet meeting when officers
had stated that community groups at Botanical Gardens did not wish to engage in
discussions about retaining the toilets.
He advised that he was aware of community groups who did wish to engage
on the matter and therefore it was inaccurate for officers to state
otherwise. The Leader suggested that
Cabinet approve the minutes subject to an investigation into the point made. RESOLVED that, subject to an investigation into the
accuracy point raised by Councillor Brian Jones above, the minutes of the
meeting held on 29 April 2025 be received and confirmed as a correct record. |
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To consider the outcome of the review of the decision taken by Cabinet on 29 April 2025 relating to the Public Conveniences Savings Proposal which had been subject of a call-in and considered by Partnerships Scrutiny Committee on 22 May 2025. Additional documents:
Decision: RESOLVED that, by majority vote,
Cabinet, having considered and taken into account the recommendation of Partnerships
Scrutiny Committee, agrees to add 3 further recommendations to its decision
made on the 29th April 2025: (f) that officers continue to have meaningful
discussions with relevant City, Town and Community Councils and any other
relevant third party on the options for keeping the public conveniences in
question open and the outcomes of these discussions to be reported back to a
future Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet meeting as soon as reasonably possible
given the Council’s budget setting process for 2026/27; (g) that the recommendation made by Partnerships
Scrutiny Committee to fund the public conveniences via an increase in Council
Tax forms part of the Council’s annual budget setting process for 2026/27 and
will take into account the outcome of the discussions referred to above, and (h) that the public
conveniences in question will remain open until the discussions referred to in
(f) and (g) above are concluded to the satisfaction of Cabinet. Minutes: The report referenced the lengthy debate at the Scrutiny
Committee meeting based on the grounds of the call-in. Following consideration of all the views
raised and questions answered during the discussion the Committee was in
agreement with all the points raised within the Notice of Call-in. In addition, members had concerns – · on the impact the proposed closure of
toilets in popular visitor destinations, such as Dyserth, Rhuddlan and St.
Asaph would have on the lives and well-being of local residents and communities · bearing in mind the conclusions of the
Wellbeing Impact Assessment, the effect the decision to close the toilets would
have on the Council’s reputation amongst residents, businesses and other
stakeholders · on the impact the decision would have on
staff working within the service and those staff who used the toilets when
delivering vital services to residents · the frequency of communication with elected
members and other stakeholders in relation to proposed service delivery
changes, and · that silence on the consultation should not
be taken as support of the proposals. The Committee, in referring the decision back for review
respectfully requested that Cabinet and officers made every effort to keep all
communication channels open with City/Town/Community Councils, and all other
stakeholders to ensure dignified access to all to quality public conveniences
across the county were maintained. Councillor Jones thanked Councillor Meryn Parry for his
recommendation and acknowledgement of the cost implications in retaining
toilets and meeting future needs and it was accepted that the figures may need
to be revised in light of the budget process.
Consequently, Cabinet was asked to reconsider its decision to close
existing Denbighshire County Council operated public conveniences, and instead
retained these services by funding the required cost figure from a dedicated
0.27% increase in the Council Tax base for 2026/27. This represented an average cost of no more
than £4.38 per year per Band D household, which Partnerships Scrutiny Committee
believed was a fair and proportionate investment in protecting health, dignity
and accessibility for all residents and visitors across the county. The Leader thanked Councillor Jones for reporting on the
scrutiny debate and recommendation and thanked the Scrutiny Committee for their
work. The Leader asked Cabinet to focus
debate on the Scrutiny Committee’s recommendation. Main points of discussion focused on the following – · Councillor Julie Matthews referred to the
minutes of the last meeting on this item, which linked in with section 4.8 of
the report, when Cabinet had stressed the need to work to secure replacement
provision/and or retain existing provision where possible through
collaboration, recognising public conveniences remained an essential provision,
and requested firmer proposals as to how provision would be protected, and she
sought assurances as to how that work was progressing. Officers advised there had been engagement
with relevant City/Town/Community Councils including a joint discussion with
St. Asaph, Dyserth and Rhuddlan with a view to finding a solution to keep
toilets open in those areas which was ongoing.
However, discussions had been hampered by the call-in as officers
awaited clarity on the Council’s position before re-engaging and continuing
those discussions. The Leader
highlighted the vital importance of those discussions and negotiations and
urged officers to proceed with those discussions without delay. Cabinet also requested that all members be
kept abreast of those discussions and negotiations · the Head of Finance and Audit provided some ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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To consider a report by Councillor Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport (copy enclosed) regarding the project aiming to replace Pont Llanerch and risks associated with the construction of a bridge. Additional documents:
Decision: RESOLVED that Cabinet – (a) considered the report and detailed design
stage report (attached at Appendix A to the report) and on the evidence of the
risks presented, supported the conclusions of the Partnership Scrutiny
Committee, and decided that the project aiming to replace Pont Llanerch be stopped, and (b) confirmed that it had read, understood and taken account of the Wellbeing Impact
Assessment (Appendix B to the report). Minutes: The
Corporate Director: Environment and Economy, Head of Highways and Environmental
Services and Senior Engineer – Bridges and Construction attended. Cabinet
was guided though the report which included the extensive work carried out and
complexities of the project to replace Pont Llanerch following its collapse in
2021. The project had been split into
three stages: Optioneering, Detailed Design and Construction. The detailed design stage had been a
complicated and lengthy process and raised some significant challenges, the
main challenge being the foundation required for a new bridge. Pont Llanerch was located above a freshwater
aquifer within a layer of sandstone and Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water (DC/WW) had a
freshwater extraction site next to the old bridge. The foundation work for a new bridge would
require drilling into the sandstone layers which had the potential to
compromise water quality and a risk of supply loss to 85,000 DC/WW customers,
and introduce a public health risk with wide reaching consequences. Members were also guided through a technical presentation
illustrating further details of the project’s optioneering and detailed design
stages including reasoning behind the preferred option, foundations, ground
investigations and outcome. Cabinet
was assured that every possible engineering solution for building a new bridge
had been considered with the Council exhausting the optioneering and designing
the most viable option for replacing the bridge. However, it had not been possible to design a
replacement bridge without creating an unknown level of risk to the water
supply in the region with no known means of rectifying the problem. The matter had been discussed at Partnerships
Scrutiny Committee in April 2025 and their conclusions and recommendations had
been set out in the report for Cabinet to consider. Given the significant risks associated with
construction of a replacement bridge it was recommended that Cabinet made a
decision to stop the project. Cabinet
stated that all involved wanted Pont Llanerch to be rebuilt and that aim had
been included as an ambition within the Corporate Plan with much work carried
out in that regard with support from the Welsh Government and at significant
cost. However, having exhausted all options
to design a replacement bridge it was clear from the expert engineering and
risk management advice given that it would not be possible to construct a
bridge without the risk of compromising the water supply to 85,000 homes with
no known means of rectifying the problem and no insurance against that
liability. Main discussion points
focused on the following – ·
given the complexities and technicalities of the
project it was felt there was some public misconception and a general lack of
understanding of the situation ·
a representative from DC/WW had been unable to
attend the meeting to answer questions but a representative had attended the
Partnerships Scrutiny Committee in April 2025 to help inform that debate and
their stance remained the same in that proceeding with the project presented
too high a risk to the water supply of homes and businesses across the majority
of the north of Wales ·
the aquifer was a porous rock with water
contained within it and filtered in the rock itself and extracted; it was approximately
22km long, 5km wide and 100m deep hence it would not be possible to move the
bridge some distance up or down stream because it would still be located over
the aquifer · the issue of a temporary bridge had been raised but it would still require the same foundations and so the risk remained, and it ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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BUDGET AMENDMENT OF £500K To consider a report by Councillor Diane King, Lead Member for Education, Children and Families (copy enclosed) seeking Cabinet’s support on the proposed spending of the additional £500k to support learner wellbeing, attendance, behaviour, and learners in poverty. Additional documents: Decision: RESOLVED that Cabinet
supported the proposed plan to develop learner wellbeing, attendance,
behaviour, and support learners in poverty. Minutes: Councillor Diane King presented
the report seeking Cabinet’s support for the proposed spending of the
additional £500k transferred to the Education Service to develop learner wellbeing,
attendance, behaviour, and support learners in poverty following the agreed
budget amendment at Council on 20 February 2025. Cabinet was advised there was no
single solution to address the issues which were of both national and local
concern and impacted greatly by the Covid pandemic. The funding would go towards supporting
existing work and developing new work streams.
There had been considerable discussion on how best to utilise the
funding and the report included the professional views of officers and wider
national evidence available on effective practice. The proposal aimed to address the needs of
schools and more importantly the needs of young people to fulfil their
potential. The Head of Education detailed the engagement with professional officers and head teachers on how best to target the funding and considered both local and national views. He thanked Cabinet and full Council for the additional funding and continued focus in support of education. He guided Cabinet through the report detail and proposal for utilising the additional £500k allocated to the Education Service which included a cost breakdown of the six expenditure lines which covered modernising the data analysis system and recruitment of Family Link Workers, Family Engagement Officers, Behaviour Support Staff, Education Psychologist and Welfare Officer. A total of 9 officers would be recruited to build capacity and focus on methods that were known to work. Whilst £500k was exceptionally welcome it was important to note that it would not solve every issue in those four key areas. In response to questions the Lead Member and officers – · detailed consultation with professional officers, Head Teachers, Trade Unions, School Budget Forum and Corporate Executive Team as part of the process; Performance Scrutiny Committee had scrutinised and approved the proposals · explained it was an area for which the Welsh Government had provided grant funding, but it had been difficult to recruit into those fixed term positions. As the £500k was a reoccurring amount in the budget the posts would be permanent which would be more appealing to potential applicants and aid recruitment · measuring wellbeing posed a huge challenge and attending school was a huge part of that wellbeing with increased benefits in terms of learning, social issues and free school meals for younger children and the extra funding would help target those areas with 9 extra officers being recruitment in that regard. The Leader thanked the Lead Member, Head of Education and his team for the hard work in ensuring that the extra funding was spent in order to get best value. RESOLVED that Cabinet
supported the proposed plan to develop learner wellbeing, attendance,
behaviour, and support learners in poverty. |
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CABINET FORWARD WORK PROGRAMME To receive the enclosed Cabinet Forward Work Programme and note the contents.
Additional documents: Decision: Minutes: The Cabinet forward work
programme was presented for consideration. RESOLVED that Cabinet’s forward work programme be
noted. The
meeting concluded at 12.50 pm. |