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Minutes of a special meeting of the Council held in Y Ganotfan, Bodorgan on Tuesday, 17th APRIL 2018.
1 Present:
Cllr Gwlym Looms (Chairman), Cllr Dafydd Jones,
Cllr Andrew Hughes, Cllr Selwyn Williams,
Cllr Alwyn Rowlands.
County Councillor Mr Bryan Owen and Peter Rogers.
Mr J Alun Foulkes (Clerk).
Mr Rhys Evans - Treasurer of the Management Committee Trust.
2 Apologies:
Councillor Gwen Burns, Councillor Myfyr Davles Councillor Gareth Evans and Councillor Tim Owen.
3 WELCOME & THANKS.
3.1 All members were welcomed to the meeting by the Chairman and he explained the reason for calling the meeting at short notice and thanked the Clerk for organizing it.
3.2 Mr Rhys Evans was welcomed to the meeting and he thanked him for the invitation.
3.3 Both County Councillors were thanked for coming to the meeting and showing support for the Community Council.
4 Declarations of Interest.
4.1 Cllr Dafydd G Jones showed a personal interest as Chair of the Bodorgan Centre Charity but this interest was not prejudicial and therefore he took part in the item.
5 The Future of the Community School
5.1 History
A historical report was given once again by Councillor Dafydd Jones and he referred to a legal document dated in 1987 and meetings with the County Council between 2013-2016 including a meeting with the Chief Executive of the County Council. He said that things were silent until he received an email from Mr Dylan Edwards from the Property Department asking him to attend an informal meeting without prejudice in order to try to discuss the next step as it is planned to close the School in a year - 18 months.
5.2 Ownership Valuation & Finance.
5.2.1 It was decided and agreed to proceed with Option 3 which has been proposed by the County Council and that the Community Council will have to work together in partnership with the Centre Committee. (AR/AH).
5.2.2 Dafydd had contacted Mr Elfed Williams, Erw Consulting, Bryngwran in order to settle the valuation of the building - cost £400.00. Agreed to accept this price. (AH/SW).
5.2.3 It was agreed that a Structured Survey of the building will have to be organized and this will be done when time permits.
5.2.4 It is expected that the purchase price will be around £90,000 but a purchase price will have to be received from the County Council first.
5.2.5 It was discussed how many sources the Community Council can contact in order to assist towards any plan once the Community Council has decided on the next step
5.2.6 Finally, it was agreed to call a public meeting with the community in order to try to find out if it is necessary to keep the facility. Date of the Public Meeting - 14th May 2018.
6 Closing the Meeting
6.1 The Chairman thanked all members for attending. The meeting closed at 8:25pm.
INFORMAL MEETING WITHOUT PREJUDICE - ANGLESEY COUNTY COUNCIL
[This section of the minutes reported in English]
29th March 2018
PRESENT
Bodorgan Community Centre - Dafydd Jones, Rhys Evans, Chris Rogers
Anglesey County Council - Dylan Edwards, Principal Valuation Officer
Dylan Edwards explained that because of the proposed school closures timings had come to a head,
Dafydd Jones commented on the length of time (25 months) it had taken the Council to come back to the Community Centre.
Dylan Edwards is keen for the matter to be taken forward. The authority is both the landowner and custodian trustee therefore a conflict of interest arises for the authority. Dylan Edwards was keen for the custodian trustee role to be transferred, ideally to the Community Centre Trustees or someone else of the community centre's choice.
Dafydd Jones explained that the Community Centre Trustees are only a representative body in law, so were not able to become custodians unless there was a change to their governing document
Dylan Edwards wished to go over three options for the site. Dafydd Jones made it clear that he was under legal advice not to commit to anything merely listen to the options. Dylan E accepted this.
OPTIONS FROM DYLAN EDWARDS
OPTION 1 - Close the site, board up all buildings. Although this would be in breech of the Trust Deed the authority would be prepared to pay damages. Dafydd Jones stated if this option was taken, the authority had already been informed that an injunction would follow. The authority did not want to be involved in legal proceedings.
OPTION 2 - Leave part of the building open and board up the rest. The authority would look to sell off parts of the building, and renegotiate new contractual terms for continuing community use. Both Dafydd Jones and Dylan Edwards agreed that the school field only holds agricultural value, which would be on the low side as it had no natural water supply. Dafydd Jones made the point that the authority via Tim Rhodes the authority's solicitor at that time made an offer 21st December 2015 to sell the site to the Community Centre. Indeed the Community Centre Trustees had engaged a chartered surveyor work on their behalf to check the value of the site. Within a month after offer was made Tim Rhodes withdrew it,
OPTION 3 - Community Asset Transfer from the authority to Bodorgan Community. This is Dylan Edwards's personal preference. Exclusive rights of purchase would be given to the community for approximately 18 months, although this could be flexible. After which time the community would purchase the site. When Dylan Edwards was asked for an approximate value, he stated it would be under £100,000. Dafydd Jones made it clear that if option three was adopted the community would have to look for substantial funding to purchase the site. The offer would be the sale of the freehold of the whole site.
Dylan Edwards stated that the 'Shell' fund has been a source of funding for some community groups on Anglesey ie Holyhead Boxing Club and Llanddona School. Dylan Edwards gave the example of Ysgol y Fron, Caernarfon which had been purchased by the community and changed to a community asset and suggested contact with them.
Dylan Edwards offered to send Dafydd Jones an electronic copy of site floor plan. Dafydd expressed an opinion that a possibility that the Community Council could hold the land, however all the options need to be discussed fully at a meeting.
Dafydd Jones agreed to come back to Dylan Edwards in the near future re the options and would be letting the Community Centre's pro bono legal firm, Ashurst know about this discussion, and would not respond until he had their guidance.
Dylan Edwards emphasised that the authority would have to do something about its conflict of interest before anything else could go forward. Therefore Dylan Edwards is keen for a new governing document to be drawn up. Dafydd responded that would happen, once a clear path forward had been fully agreed.
