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Minutes

Pontypridd Town Council

6.30 p.m. Thursday, 24th October 2019

Pontypridd Museum, Bridge Street, Pontypridd

Present:

Councillor L. Tomkinson – Chair

Councillor S. Carter

Councillor L. Davies

Councillor H. Fychan

Councillor N Kiff

Councillor N. Llewellyn

Councillor S. Presse

Councillor S. Pritchard

Councillor C. Thomas

Councillor A. Williams

In attendance:

Tony Graham – Chief Executive

Jacqui Hopkins – Administrative Officer

36. Apologies for absence

Councillors J. Baxter, L. Bengough, J. Brencher, S. Duggan, B. Fox, D. Paul, S. Powell and B. Watts.

37. Declarations of Interest:

Item 7.4 Small Grant Applications

Councillor Lynda Davies – Common Neighbourhood Watch

Councillor Niall Kiff – Aberarts Wales/Treforest Community Centre

Councillor Carl Thomas – Hawthorn Neighbourhood Watch

Councillor Alyson Williams – Maesycoed Primary School Echo Team

38. Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015

RESOLVED:

To note the duty imposed by the Act.

39. Minutes of Meetings

RESOLVED:

39.1 The minutes of the Town Council Meeting on the 26th September 2019 be approved as a correct record and signed.

39.2 The minutes of the Staffing Committee on the 30th September 2019 be accepted and adopted.

39.3 The minutes of the Environmental and Direct Services Committee held on 7th October 2019 be accepted and adopted.

39.4 The minutes of the Policy and Finance Committee held on 10th October 2019 be accepted and adopted.

40. Mayor’s Announcements

Members were provided information on the events that the Mayor had attended and gave feedback to Council.

41. Presentation by Karen Davies – Purple Shoots

At the Policy and Finance meeting held on 18th September 2019 it was agreed to invite Karen Davies, Purple Shoots, to carry out a presentation to full Council.

Purple Shoots is an organisation who assist individuals in setting up a business and offer small loans at fair interest rates to individuals who cannot access credit from normal lenders to enable them to set up a business or grown an existing one.

For those not ready to embark on running their own business Purple Shoots helps establish Self-reliant Groups.

Committee received the presentation and would discuss in later in the in the Chief Executive’s report.

42. Chief Executives’ Report

42.1 Purple Shoots

The Chief Executive recently met Karen Davies from Purple Shoots. Purple Shoots seek to tackle poverty, isolation and unemployment in Wales by providing small loans to local start up or existing small businesses supporting those who would normally find difficulty in obtaining finance from traditional sources. In addition, they also support self-reliant groups which are groups of individuals who are disadvantaged and far from the job market.

Purple Shoots came to the attention of the Chief Executive some months ago on social media when Barry Town Council entered an agreement with Purple Shoots to invest £5k per year in local small businesses in the Barry TC area. Members are invited to consider whether there is merit in setting up a similar scheme to assist local small businesses and entrepreneurs who might otherwise find it difficult to gain access to small start-up loans and micro finance.

Policy and Finance Committee discussed this at their meeting on 18th September 2019 and agreed to invite Purple Shoots to present their work to Full Council with a view to considering whether we should enter a partnership with Purple Shoots to support individuals in the Pontypridd Town Council area seeking to set up or develop their own small businesses or self-reliant groups.

RESOLVED:

i) To carry out a due diligence exercise and to agree in principle to enter into a partnership with Purple Shoots to support individuals in the Pontypridd Town Council area seeking to set up or develop their own small businesses or self-reliant groups.

ii) That a figure of £5K be agreed.

42.2 Employment Policies

When I joined the organisation as the new Chief Executive, I was surprised to discover that there were a limited number of staff/employment policies that had previously been approved. In my view this is poor practise and potentially exposes the Council to criticism for not having a basic set of staff policies in place. In addition, not having basic/standard policies in place means we are failing in our duty of care to our employees.

This Staffing Committee instructed me in July to draft a number of basic policies. After consultation with the GMB and consideration of these policies by the Staffing Committee on 30th September the following policies are recommended for adoption:

• Health & Safety

• Lone Working

• Grievance

• Paternity

• Recruitment and Selection

• Redundancy

• Annual leave/TOIL

RESOLVED:

To adopt the above listed policies.

Councillors Carter and Williams left at the end of item 2 at 7.30 p.m.

42.3 Climate Emergency Motion (Councillor Jeff Baxter)

Cllr Baxter introduced a draft motion on the climate emergency to the Environmental and Directs Service Committee on 7th October 2019. There was a full discussion on the issue considering carefully the potential implications for the Council moving forward. The Chief Executive was asked to develop a fuller understanding of our current climate emissions and bring forward any necessary recommendations in 12 months. The current motion should be seen as a first step in a process of supporting local groups involved in this arena and for this Council to consider its own responsibilities and what actions can be taken to play a part in addressing this issue in our local area.

RESOLVED:

That the Environment and Direct Services Committee recommend the following motion be approved by Council subject to the amendments made by Council marked in bold and underline in items 2 and 5.:

“This Council notes the ‘Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’, (October 2018), which found that:

Human-induced global warming has already caused multiple observed changes in the climate system which include more frequent heatwaves in most land regions, an increase in the frequency and duration of marine heatwaves and an increase in the frequency, intensity and/or amount of heavy precipitation events at the global scale.

Human activity related global warming reached approximately 1°C above pre-industrial levels in 2017, and is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052.

A 1.5°C rise will result in multiple negative impacts, including increases in frequency, intensity and/or amount of heavy precipitation in several regions, and the majority (70–90%) of warm water (tropical) coral reefs that exist today will disappear.

A further increase to 2°C rise will result in much more severe harm, including a greater risk of water scarcity in some regions and increased frequency of severe weather events, droughts, floods, higher sea level rises, crop failures and destruction of land and marine eco-systems with the loss of 99% of tropical coral reefs.

With current strategies, the world is on track to overshoot the 1.5°C limit of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement before 2050 and exceed 3°C by 2100.

Limiting global warming to 1.5°C may still be possible with ambitious action from local and national government, organisations and businesses, and local people and their communities.

This Council therefore resolves to:

1. Join with Welsh Government and other councils across the UK in declaring a global ‘climate emergency’ in response to the findings of the IPCC report.

2. Work towards an understanding of its own carbon emissions and to establish a Task and Finish Working Group to bring forward further recommendations to Council in 12 months to help achieve the Welsh Government’s ambition for the public sector in Wales to be carbon neutral.

3. Make representations to the Welsh and UK Governments, as appropriate, to provide the necessary powers, resources and technical support to local authorities in Wales to help them successfully meet the 2030 target.

4. Continue to work with partners across the region to develop and implement best practice methods that can deliver carbon reductions and help limit global warming.

5. Work with local stakeholders including Councillors, residents, young people, businesses, and other relevant parties to contribute to the development of a wider local strategy in line with the target of net zero emissions by 2030 and explore ways to maximise local benefits of these actions in other sectors such as employment, health, agriculture, transport and the economy.”

42.4 Small Grants

Members of this Committee were referred to the recommendations made in respect of Small Grants to be issued by Pontypridd Town Council under appropriate legislation. Subject to any comments this Committee may have to make it is recommended that payments under the budgeted sum of £6,000 be equally proportioned as appropriate and payments duly made to applicants. The applications have been considered by the Chief Executive and the Senior Executive Officer further to powers delegated by the Policy and Finance Committee. The applications have been considered against the criteria sent out the applicants, consideration was also given to the recommendations made by external auditors BDO regarding whether the monies could be provided under any other legislative powers.

RESOLVED:

To agree that the recommended successful applicants be paid the appropriately apportioned grant sum as per the report provided for Council except for the applications where declarations of interest were made which would be deferred to November Council as the meeting was no longer quorate due to 2 members leaving the meeting.

42.5 Budget 2019/20

The budgeting process for the Town Council for 2020/21 is underway. Draft budgets have been prepared for the Chief Executive by Officers and will be considered by Committees in the coming weeks.

Recommendations will then be made by the Committees in November to Policy and Finance regarding the budget and precept once the baseline tax figures for the precept for Pontypridd Town Council is received from Rhondda Cynon Taff CBC.

It is intended that the Council meeting to formally approve next year’s budget will be held on Thursday 12th December 2019.

RESOLVED:

To note the report.

43. Correspondence Received

Members received the following correspondence:

(i) Residential Day Care Services Consultation – RCTCBC

(ii) Quarterly Footfall Report

(iii) Community Liaison Committee Presentations - 26th September 2019

(iv) Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales – Draft Annual Report

RESOLVED:

To note the correspondence.

44. Planning Applications

Members noted the planning applications and in particular planning application 19/1045/19.

The Chief Executive updated Members on the application submitted by the Town Council on the Parade.

RESOLVED:

(i) To note the information.

(ii) That should the Town Council carry out work in a particular ward that information be provided on our website.

The meeting closed at 8.00 p.m.

Signed: _______________________________

Councillor Lorretta Tomkinson

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