MINUTES – MALLTRAETH YMLAEN
WEDNESDAY 28th September 2016
The Chairman gave a warm welcome to all residents and guests who attended the meeting.
PRESENT: Dafydd Jones (Chairman), Peter Garbutt, Gwilym Davies, Ann Perkins, Andrew Hughes, Helen Evans, Gareth Evans, Aled Roberts and Eric Hayworth
- APOLOGIES: Glenys Jones, Christine Garbutt, Sheila Owen, Richard Cole, Cllr Ann Griffiths, Jeff Hughes, Capel Aris, Cyril & Barbara Jones, Rachel Sayer, Rev & Mrs John Davies, Jean Foulkes, Vanessa Caldwell, Vicky Harvey, Julie Hind, Margaret Rarity-Hughes
CO-OPTED MEMBERS Cllr Peter Rogers
12 residents in attendance.
MINUTES OF MEETING HELD 27 JULY 2016 & MATTERS ARISING: Minutes were accepted as a true record of events.
- Stuart Lyon asked how a vacancy on the committee had occurred. The chairman gave a short explanation.
LLYN PARK MAWR COMMUNITY WOODLAND GROUP: Dafydd gave Melissa a warm welcome. Melissa Dhillon a member of the LPMCWG board gave a short presentation. This included a brief history and overview of the group. The group now have a 10-20 year management agreement with NRW. Melissa explained that a variety of events had already taken place in the forest, this included free Forest School sessions for the areas primary school children, Fungi Foray, Moth and Bat evening, etc. The group have been fortunate enough to receive a variety of funding. Which included Marks & Spencer Energy grant which has funded the installation of solar panels in the woodland; Fourteen which is funding a variety of events and training; Lottery development grant to engage with the community which hopefully will lead to a bid for a larger amount of money to fund things such as an outdoor classroom, all-ability path around the periphery of the lake, reinstate the bird hides, red squirrel bridge linking the woods either side of the road. Melissa asked if MY would write a letter of support which could be included within the lottery bid, the meeting unanimously agreed to this and asked Dafydd to write a letter.
There were some questions from the floor:
- Will the path around the lake disturb the wildlife? Melissa explained that before any work could commence an ‘Environmental Impact Assessment’ would have to be carried out. The path will go around the periphery of the lake not right next to it.
- The meeting had some suggestions of groups who could be approached, these included – RSPB for advice on the hides, Young Farmers who meet in Llangaffo, Guides & Scout groups, junior football team contact is Robin Griffiths, Volunteer Officer of Medwrn Mon.
- Cllr Peter Rogers emphasised the importance of asking those young people of the area who are disengaged by approaching those youth clubs that still exist Newborough and Dwyran
- One member suggested applying for the ‘Celebrate Wales’ lottery who fund events from £500 - £2000
Melissa thanked the meeting for their time and inviting her, she then left the meeting.
PERSON WITH SIGNIGIANT CONTROL: Dafydd explained that Companies House required the name of a person with ‘Significant Control’ for Malltraeth Ymlaen, he had put his name forward, and the meeting unanimously endorsed this.
CELEBRATE WALES - update: Dafydd has made a successful application to this Lottery funded grant and MY have been awarded £2000. The event will be called ‘Celebrating two centuries of community cohesion through education’. The meeting thought this an excellent idea and thanked Dafydd for his efforts.
‘FOURTEEN PROGRAMME’: Dafydd had expressed his disillusionment with this fund at its last panel meeting. However, Dafydd is going to make an application for £4500 with £1100 of match funding. The application will be for a series of 4 diverse concerts eg classical music, country and western; an Easter egg hunt and a Community Sports day. Ali suggested we apply for £8000. Dafydd and Ali to meet to discuss/revise application.
The Bro Aberffraw newspaper will be published on 24 October.
Eric Hayworth had picked up the Arts & Leisure Trail leaflet. This is being funded by Fourteen. He had found it difficult to understand what it is about. It was explained that it is for a collage showing various maps and trails around Bro Aberffraw. The first workshop begins in Aberffraw on Saturday 1st October. The approx. funding received from Fourteen is £7000 with £2000 of match funding. Application had been made in the name of Criw Niwbrwch for the whole of Bro Aberffraw. However, extra funding from Fourteen is going to be applied for as Criw Niwbrwch had failed to allow for planning permission in each village for the collage. Although it is a Bro Aberffraw event it appears that it has only been advertised in the Newborough community section of local paper. The meeting expressed their concern about this, if funding had been received for Bro Aberffraw it should be advertised in each village’s community section. Dafydd/Chris to bring up at next panel meeting.
BURDEN ON RATE PAYERS: Dafydd gave the background to a planning application made to the local authority by Bodorgan Estate to place ‘pay and display’ car parking ticket machines in Cable Bay and Tyn Towyn. The machine in Tyn Towyn had been approved, however permission for Cable Bay had been refused. It was noted that Bodorgan Estate had taken over the responsibility for the local authority toilets at Tyn Towyn which gave the estate extra expense. Bodorgan aim to stop the abuse at night in the car parks and re-surface the parking area.
Under normal circumstances, local authority employed officers decide on a planning application, however on this occasion Cllr Ann Griffiths ‘called-in’ the application, hence the planning committee had to meet. The only objections came from residents of Menai Bridge. In July against the advice of the local authority officers the application for Cable Bay was refused. When this happens councillors must give their reasons. ‘Socialism’ was given initially. Consequently the planning department indicated that reasons given were not valid planning reasons. The planning committee were warned that Bodorgan Estate would win an appeal and this would incur costs to ratepayers.
On the 7th September the local authority’s planning officer and the solicitor present, again told councillors that reasons for refusal were not valid planning reasons. One particular member chose to ignore this advice and proposed refusal. His proposal was seconded and the other members abstained because of cost to authority. The refusal therefore carried. Bodorgan Estate will now appeal this rejection and having used a planning consultant costs awarded may be substantial and will be have to be paid by the ratepayers. Dafydd having looked at the local authority constitution 4.16.2 feels that the member was clearly in breach of the code of conduct.
MY meeting have asked Dafydd to write a formal letter of complaint to the Monitoring Officer. If anyone wants to hear what went on in the meeting on the local authority website look for the Podcast Library and the planning meeting of 7 September.
BURGER & QUIZ NIGHT: Dafydd and Ali to organise.
HALLOWEEN DISCO: Ali and Jude will do disco. Will take place Monday 31 October 6.15 pm – 8.15 pm.
PENSIONERS CHRISTMAS LUNCH: This will take place on Tuesday 13 December 12 pm for 12.30 pm.
VIDEO PROJECT: This is rolling on nicely and will be finished soon. Each school now has something in the video:
- Bodorgan – Dog fouling project, Forest school at LPM, Children’s’ Commissioner at Bangor Uni and will have McMillan Coffee morning filmed on Friday 30th
- Llangaffo – ‘Open Book’ with Cathleen Beavis and Elizabeth Lions
- Hen Blas (finally) – ‘Bake Off’ and will film Urdd
- Niwbrwch – Forest school at LPM
- Dwyran – hopefully ‘Community Party’
£500 will come to MY for project management.
ADOPT A PLANTER: Bodorgan WI in partnership with other groups, have received funding for planters at Bodorgan Station. As it was a partnership award they have awarded MY £100 and CMSC (gardening group) £50. Dafydd asked for volunteers to take responsibility for the four village planters in the spring; £25 available for each. Cyril has volunteered to do the Bethel planter for free, Chris and Peter offered to do Malltraeth planters and Gwillym will do Hermon planter both will donate their £25 to MY. Ali offered to supply the compost when needed.
REVISED REFUSE COLLECTION: The new system is very complicated. Dafydd informed the meeting that after recycling items all residual rubbish will be burned in Deeside. With the extra box and pouch and black bin only being collected every 3 weeks we were paying more and getting less. Dafydd is to write to Ieuan Williams, the Council leader to complain copying in Holyhead mail. Meeting asked why green bin wasn’t changing. Peter Rogers explained contractual difficulty.
COMMUNITY ISSUES:
Cllr Peter Rogers brought up issues pertaining to the closure of Aberffraw School in 2010. When the school closed parents were given the choice of sending children to either Bodorgan or Pencarnisiog. The local authority website stipulates that it is the catchment area of the primary school which determines the secondary school pupils go to not the area they live in. Despite this the local authority decided to levy a charge for the bus on those pupils living in Aberffraw originally attending Bodorgan school wishing to go to Llangefni secondary school. It had got to a situation where the local authority sent in the bailiffs to one particular parent. Cllr Peter Rogers had contacted the Head of Learning Delyth Molyneux explaining what that local authority website stipulates that it is the catchment area of the school that determines which secondary school should be attended. Cllr Rogers also wrote to Kirsty Williams of the Welsh Assembly to inform her about catchment areas she then referred this to Ken Skates Economic minister who had replied to Cllr Peter Rogers but failed to answer the question. Despite Cllr Peter Rogers’ efforts both Delyth Molyneux and Dr Gwyn have refused to respond to any correspondence about this matter, inspite of it clearly stating that school cohorts should not be split.
Meeting informed that the closure notice for Niwbrwch school had been approved it is supposed to open 1 September 2018. Cllr Peter Rogers is confident that the land has now been acquired. However, the authorities’ business plan will not be looked at by Welsh Assembly until after its approval by the council executive in January 2017.
The meeting was informed that the local authority had still not resolved the Bodorgan Community Centre issue.
BODORGAN FORTHCOMING COMMUNITY EVENTS:
- Bodorgan Community Bingo – every Thursday 7 pm
- Friday 30 September 10.30 am MacMillan Coffee Morning Ysgol Bodorgan
- Saturday 8th October Fungi Foray at LPM 2 pm
- Saturday 3rd December Christmas Fair Crist Y Brenin 10 am – 12.30 pm
ANY OTHER BUSINESS:
- Thanks were given to Ali and Jude for raising £1408.80 in aid of Breast Cancer at their wonderful Strawberry Tea.
- Meeting was informed that the local authority now charge £25 for the collection of washing machines/bulky items.
- Peter Garbutt felt he was being ‘short changed and betrayed’ by Cllr Ann Griffiths. Despite still drawing her full allowance of £22000 she had indicated that she could only allocate 3 days to her council work. The question was raised as to whether she is being paid her £42000 as Deputy Police Commissioner? Peter Garbutt is to write a letter to the council on behalf of Bodorgan constituents.
- Meeting was informed that Gwyneth Hughes, the head teacher was leaving to take up a new post. The meeting asked Dafydd to write to her on behalf of MY to express their gratitude for all that she had done for the school and its pupils. Eirian Jones has been appointed to the post of head teacher and again the meeting asked Dafydd to write and congratulate Eirian on her appointment. It was suggested that a copy of each letter go to the Education Department of the local authority.
- 150 CLUB – DRAW 4:
1st prize £30 No 287 Carolynn Evans
2nd prize £20 No 243 Milly Edwards
3rd prize £20 No 322 Caitlin Williams
DATE & TIME OF NEXT MEETING:
WEDNESDAY 26 OCTOBER 2016 AT 7.00 PM
BODORGAN COMMUNITY CENTRE
ALL RESIDENTS WELCOME