LLYGAD AR Y BWTWM

University Education – Entrapment or Elevation?

2011-12-15T12:51:00.000-08:00

Over the last decade the definition of university has changed fundamentally for us in the UK. A large number of Polytechnic colleges have been re-christened Universities. The perception of Universities, their structure, place in society and contribution to further education in general has changed.
When I graduated from Bangor University in 1972 some 55,000 students did the same thing throughout the UK. Last year 481,000 students enrolled for 1st degree courses in the UK.
In 1972 virtually every student in the Science faculties was assured of a job, I remember a colleague applying for 7 jobs and getting 7 offers. Today many graduates try for 70 jobs and get no offers.
So what’s changed? The fact that there are some nine times more graduates looking for jobs in 2011 as compared with 1972 will have significantly altered the perception of employers. Undoubtedly the choice of graduates with different skills and attainments is greatly enhanced, but did the student choose wisely when entering university? Graduate courses on belly dancing, science fiction, David Beckham studies, or golf studies may not be the sort of qualifications that prospective employers are looking for. Have vocational qualifications been short changed for spurious academic ones?
With the massive hike in student fees from £3,000 to £9,000 per anum it’s only right that prospective students are given rigorous advice as to which courses are likely to lead to job opportunities. It’s important to ask the question if a commodity has gone up in price by 300% (ie. £3,000 to £9,000) is it 3 times better? Would a prospective student be better off taking an ‘on the job’ placement i.e. an apprenticeship, rather than spend 3 years at university?
Is there a hidden political agenda to all this educational price hike? With the government – of any political hue – cajoling our youngsters to take a university degree course with financial implications in the region of £50,000 - £60,000, taking into account fees and living expenses for 3 years. How ‘docile’ are these financially strapped graduates going to be to protest against government policy in the future? If another Iraq war situation loomed over the horizon, would individuals with a financial millstone around their necks risk their jobs to protest against government iniquities? Possibly not – giving the political classes an easy ride on contentious issues.
So when the options for further education are being considered, it’s important to choose not only the right university but the right course. Is the Open University more appropriate coupled with on the job training? Vocational course may be the path for some young people. Graduating with only an extensive knowledge of the local pubs around the university will not be a big help in finding the right job.

Addysg Prifysgol – Caethiwed neu Achubiaeth?
Dros y degawd diwethaf mae ystyr o’r gair ‘Prifysgol’ wedi newid yn sylfaenol yma ym Mhrydain Fawr. Mae nifer fawr o golegau technegol wedi cael eu hail-fedyddio yn brifysgolion. Mae dehongliad o brifysgolion, eu gweinyddiad, lle yn y gymdeithas a chyfraniad i addysg bellach wedi newid.
Pan adewais Brifysgol Bangor yn 1972 gyda gradd, ‘roedd tua 55,000 o fyfyrwyr eraill yn neud yr un peth yn y UK. Blwyddyn ddiwethaf ‘roedd 481,000 o fyfyrwyr yn ymaelodi ar eu blwyddyn gyntaf ar gyrsiau gradd yma yn y UK.
Yn 1972 ‘roedd bron bob myfyriwr yn y disgyblaethau Gwyddoniaeth yn sicr o gael swydd. Rwyf yn cofio cyfaill yn ceisio am 7 swydd ac yn cael 7 cynnig. Heddiw mae nifer o raddedigion yn ceisio am 70 swydd ac yn cael ddim un.
Beth sydd wedi newid? Y ffaith bod tua naw gwaith fwy o raddedigion yn ceisio am swyddi yn 2011 i gymharu â 1972 yn sicr o newid agwedd cyflogwyr. Yn bendant mae’r dewis o raddedigion gyda sgiliau a chymwysterau gwahanol yn llawer mwy eang, ond oedd y myfyriwr yn ddoeth yn dewis ei bwnc? Mae cyrsiau ar ‘belly dancing’ science fiction, astudiaethau David Beckham neu astudiaethau golff efallai ddim y math o gymwysterau mae’r cyflogwr yn ei chwilio amdano. Ydi cyrsiau galwadigaethol wedi cael eu amddifadu ar gyfer cyrsiau academaidd ffug?
Gyda’r codiad enfawr yn ffioedd i fyfyrwyr o £3,000 i £9,000 y flwyddyn mae’n iawn bod myfyrwyr yn cael cyngor effeithiol a chadarn ar pa gwrs sydd am creu cyfle am waith yn y dyfodol. Mae’n bwysig i ofyn y cwestiwn os yw pris rhiwbeth wedi codi 300% (e.e. £3,000 i £9,000) ydi’r darpariaeth yn 3 gwaith yn well? Efallai prentisiaeth neu hyfforddiant mewn swydd yw’r ffordd ymlaen.
Oes ‘na agenda cudd i’r prisiau addysg uchel newydd? Gyda’r llywodraeth - o bob lliw politicaidd - yn annog yr ifanc i fynd i brifysgol, gyda’r oblygiadau ariannol o gwmpas £50,000 i £60,000 gan gynnwys ffioedd a chostau byw am 3 mlynedd? Pa mor ‘ufudd’ fudd graddedigion y dyfodol pan mae’r amser yn dod i brotestio yn erbyn polisïau’r llywodraeth yn y dyfodol? Os yw sefyllfa debyg i ryfel Iraq yn dod dros y gorwel, sut mae’r unigolyn gyda maen melin ariannol o gwmpas ei wddw am ymateb? Wel peidio â phrotestio ac felly rhoi'r dosbarth politicaidd amser hawdd ar benderfyniadau dadleuol.
Felly pan mae’r cyfle yn dod i benderfynu ar addysg bellach, mae’n bwysig i ddewis y brifysgol a’r cwrs priodol. Ydi’r Brifysgol Agored yn fwy addas gyda phrofiad gwaith? Cyrsiau galwedigaethol yw’r opsiwn gorau i rai. Ni fudd graddio yn unig a gwybodaeth drylwyr am y tai tafarnau o gwmpas y brifysgol yn fawr o help darganfod swydd.

Bring Back the Rope

2011-08-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

In the aftermath of the recent riots in London, various other towns and cities, it’s been no surprise to see a huge increase in the growth of e-petitions supporting the re-introduction of capital punishment in this country.
William Murphy was the last person hanged in Caernarfon on 15th February 1910.(see T Meirion Hughes’ article on Caernarfononline) However the last person to be hanged in the UK was Peter Anthony Allen in Walton jail Liverpool on 13th August 1964. Although not in use after this date the Death Penalty remained on the statute book until 1998. I’m old enough to remember the BBC newscaster reporting in grave tones that a hanging had taken place at a particular prison that morning. There was on average about one hanging per month in the 1950’s.
This country had at one time in the region on 220 crimes which were punishable by death including ‘ being in the company of Gypsies for one month’ Gradually the number of these ‘death penalty’ crimes were reduced until finally the controversial Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, a Private Members Bill by Sidney Silverman MP passed on a free vote to suspend the Death Penalty for a trial period of 5 years, in Wales, England and Scotland but not N.Ireland.
It’s interesting to re-visit those arguments, both for and against Capital Punishment which led eventually to its abolition.
• Abolition acts as a deterrent, - an argument frequently used by the pro hanging lobby. By the ‘60’s however statistics from various countries who’d abolished the Death Penalty for a number of years showed that this was not the case.
• Abolition will result in an increase in the crime-rate. Again it was shown that in different countries and conditions, abolition was nowhere followed by an increase in the crime-rate.
• One big drawback of the law on murder was that it provided a single punishment for a crime widely varying in culpability, e.g. murder by shooting was a capital offence, murder by poisoning a non-capital one.
• If wrongly convicted of murder and hanged, then subsequently found innocent – as has happened on more than one occasion. There is no possibility of reversing the sentence, that innocent person is dead. Reversing a guilty verdict is very difficult, e.g. the Birmingham Six. If they’d been hanged it would subsequently have been extremely difficult if not impossible to prove their innocence. How rare and exceptional are such cases – estimates are 30 – 40 occurrences since the halting of Capital Punishment.
• The Death Penalty also had a perverse effect on juries, particularly if women served on them. Some jurists could not bring themselves to convict, if there was a scintilla of doubt, and the outcome was a hanging. Consequently the accused was sometimes found ‘not guilty’. This led to the chances that there were more murderers at large for this reason in UK than in countries where capital punishment had been abolished.
About 20 years ago, the Dwyfor branch of Amnesty International arranged a public debate on the subject of re-introduction of Capital Punishment. As chair of the meeting I asked the question to about 50 of the public present Are you in favour of its re-introduction? By show of hands a small majority were in favour of this. After speeches from both sides, I opened the discussion for questions and comments from the floor. About half way through this process an elderly gentleman stood up and asked. ‘Has anyone here been to a hanging?’ There was silence. ‘I have’ he replied. ‘I was a legal official in the Indian Civil Service – prior to the handover of power. During that time I attended more than one execution. He then proceeded to give us a vivid account of the time prior to the execution, the hanging itself and the effect of the aftermath of the deed on the prison staff and inmates. He ended by declaring that Capital Punishment was a brutal exercise, demeaning to both the prisoner and those in attendance and had affected him for the rest of his life. At the end of the evening another vote was taken, this time there was a majority for abolition.

The gallows is a symbol of the past, like the cat of nine tails and thumb screws, it’s simply time that we left them there.

Football, Insurance and Changing Times

2011-06-20T12:18:00.000-07:00

Walking along the Pwllheli Promenade on Saturday afternoon a few weeks ago I heard a noise that took me back to my childhood. Pwllheli Football Club, playing on their home ground in the Leisure Centre, Recreation Road had scored a goal. The cheers of the home crowd drifting over to the Promenade reminded me of being in the centre of Pwllheli in the late 1950’s and hearing the roar by the supporters of the home team as they scored a goal.
Football has changed a great deal in many respects over the last 50 years. Local teams such as Pwllheli, Caernarfon, Bangor and Wrexham have seen a significant reduction in the numbers through the turnstiles. In the 1950’s and ‘60’s Wrexham could expect a gate of about 25,000, nowadays it’s nearer
3,000 to 5,000, a five fold decrease. Wrexham is not unique in experiencing this down-turn, very many regional clubs are encountering the same situation.
Why is this so? This effect has many causes. The 1st was workplace practices, in the 50’s and 60’s it was still common to work a 44 hour week, that is 5.5 days including Saturday morning. After Saturday lunch it was quite common for the working man to join one of the numerous bus trips arranged to go and see a football match. I can remember a number of buses from many parts of the Llyn peninsula parked in Cardiff Road, having delivered the Pwllheli fan base to its destination, patiently waiting for the end of the game to ferry them back home. This arrangement was I believe common for Caernarfon, Bangor and many regional clubs.
As the 60’s progressed into the 70’s and 80’s, there were 2 significant social changes, a 5 day week and ‘Dad’ buys a car. Family pressure on the father made it more difficult for him to devote every Saturday afternoon to watching football as opposed to a shopping trip, visit to the sea-side, distant relative or a ride in the car with the wife and kids. Football for so long the recreational Saturday afternoon past-time began to play second fiddle to the demands of the car owning family. Football’s response was more mid-week and evening games, which in part alleviated the drop in attendances.
The next change came from technology, Sky Sports channel for a monthly subscription now allows one to watch a vast choice of 1st class football matches at the touch of a button. The Manchester United fan must be asking himself the question , why shell out for and expensive ticket to watch the match when you can settle down in an armchair at follow it on the TV. The result of this significant amount of extra Sky cash has been poured into the coffers of a limited number of clubs. Great for the big boys but a starvation diet for some of the other clubs in terms of gate money and sponsorship.
The most recent change for the game is mega-money. Sugar daddies in the form of Russian oligarchs and Arab princes have hosed down several of the larger clubs with vast amounts of money. How interested these football benefactors are in the sport it’s difficult to tell. Somehow I can’t envisage Mr Roman Abramovich’s bedroom wall covered in posters of Chelsea players.
It’s possible that the ‘purchase’ of an internationally recognised football club can act as a form of insurance for wealthy Russians. Vast wealth can inadvertently bring one into conflict with the political masters in the Kremlin. Mr Mikhail Khodorkovsky , once apparently an extremely wealthy man now languishes in jail in Russia, having had the temerity to ‘disagree’ with Prime Minister Putin.
If you ‘own’ a well known football club it can act as a form of ‘insurance’ against the wrath of those in the Kremlin should one step out of line. How would it look if Russia had Mr Abramovich arrested and the financial mat pulled from underneath Chelsea? Even David Cameron would be out there calling for Abramovich’s release. It’s undoubtedly expensive ‘insurance’ – but I’m sure it’s worth it.
So what’s the future for regional clubs? I believe that they will have to be a lot more ‘local’ – use more local talent, local sponsorship and pay realistic prices for players that they can afford. Very few clubs will experience the stratospheric heights of multi-million pound transfers, but many I’m afraid will experience default and bankruptcy if they’re not clear headed about what they can afford and achieve.
There’s still however, a healthy core of hard working volunteers who are the backbone of clubs like Pwllheli and Caernarfon able to bring on and enthuse youngsters in the ‘beautiful game’.

AV or not AV? That's the question.

2011-04-15T11:35:00.000-07:00

AV or not AV? That is the question We in Wales will be asked to vote on 2 issues on 5th May 2011. The 1st is who will represent us in the National Assembly in Cardiff. The 2nd is, will AV (Alternative Vote) be the method of voting in future General Elections? I suspect if the British electorate choose AV this decision will be more significant than the result of the Welsh Assembly.

However looking at the Welsh Assembly election 1st, where 40 of the 60 members are elected FPTP (1st past the post) the other 20 from a regional list. A system of voting known as AMS (Additional Member System). It’s with this regional list that the major political parties can ‘up’ the quality of the AMs as they appoint those who are on this list. With enhanced political law making powers one presumably needs ‘enhanced’ AMs with an enhanced understanding of what and how these powers will affect us. I cynically assume that most, if not all the parties will by-pass this opportunity and appoint the usual yes men and political cap-doffers. I hope I’m wrong, we shall see in a future blog I’ll be visiting the situation and giving you the low down on what ‘qualifications’ the new Assembly Members have.

What about AV? Brandishing their arguments in press and TV we have the ‘purist’ proportional voter who will brook no other choice but a truly proportional system. This is not on offer so they will not accept a watered down version. At the other end of the scale is the traditionalist (mostly Tory) voter who wants things left as they are. There are many in both the Labour and Conservative parties (the Prime Minister amongst them) who regard FPTP as an opportunity to manipulate the levers of power unfettered by compromises or political deals. Their argument is that FPTP leads to ‘strong’ government and effective decision making. The evidence world wide however points the other way with governments by coalition (e.g. Germany, France) having both strong governments and economies.

The case for FPTP was strong in the 1950’s where the Labour and Conservative votes could account for up to 97% of the votes cast in a General Election. Since then however, it’s been downhill for that %. Last year’s General Election saw it drop to 65%, clearly FPTP can no longer reflect the wishes of the electorate. One argument against AV is that it’s too complicated and not appropriate, fans of numerous talent shows however understand it and the Conservative party used it to vote in David Cameron as leader. Are they saying AV is good enough for the Tories but not good enough for us the ‘thicko’ electorate? The Prime Minister said of AV ‘I don’t think that we should replace a system that everyone gets by one that’s only understood by a handful of elites’ If that doesn’t get you to vote for AV nothing will.

Pleidlais Amgen – Ie ‘ta Na? Dyna’r Cwestiwn Yma yng Nghymru ‘rydym ni am gael y cyfle i bleidleisio dros 2 fater ar 5ed Mai 2011. Y cyntaf yw, pwy sydd am gynrychioli ni yn y Cynulliad , Caerdydd? Yr ail yw fydd y Bleidlais Amgen (AV) y ffordd newydd i bleidleisio yn y dyfodol mewn Etholiad Cyffredinol? ‘Rwyf yn teimlo os yw etholwyr UK yn dewis AV, fydd y penderfyniad yma, yn y pen draw yn fwy arwyddocaol na chanlyniad y Cynulliad.

Gan edrych ar etholiad i’r Cynulliad yn gyntaf, lle mae 40 o’r 60 aelod yn cael eu hethol FPTP (1af i’r felin), y gweddill o’r rhestr ranbarthol. Gelwir y drefn yma AMS (System Aelod Ychwanegol). Mae’r cyfle ar gael i’r pleidiau mawr ‘gwella’ ansawdd yr aelodau, oherwydd nhw sy’n pennu’r enwau i fynd ar y rhestr yma. Gyda’r refferendwm diweddar ar bwerau deddfu gwell i’r Cynulliad mae’n rhesymol y bydd angen ‘gwell’ Aelodau gyda dealltwriaeth ‘gwell’ o’r pwerau sydd am effeithio arnom ni. Rwyf yn ofni mae peidio manteisio ar y cyfle yma fydd ymateb rhan fwyaf o’r cyfundrefnau politicaidd ac yn mynd am yr opsiwn hawdd gan enwebu ‘yes-men’ a chymeriadau gwasaidd. Gobeithio fy mod yn anghywir, gawn weld mewn blog i’r dyfodol pan geisiaf edrych ar ‘gymwysterau’r’ aelod y Cynulliad newydd.

Beth am AV? Yn chwifio eu dadleuon yn y papurau newydd a’r teledu cawn y ‘pur o galon’ ynglŷn â phleidleisio cyfrannol, dim lle i gyfaddawd ond system gyfrannol wirioneddol - felly pleidlais na. Ar ochr arall y clorian yw’r pleidleisiwr traddodiadol (Tori fel rheol) sydd eisiau cadw pethe fel ag y maent. Mae ‘na nifer yn Llafur a’r Ceidwadwyr (y Prif Weinidog yn eu mysg) sy’n edrych ar FPTP fel cyfle i gael eu dwylo ar lyw’r wladwriaeth heb orfod poeni am gyfaddawdu neu fargeinio politicaidd. Eu dadl nhw yw bod FPTP yn arwain at lywodraeth ‘gref’ a phenderfyniadau effeithiol. Mae tystiolaeth byd eang i’r gwrthwyneb gyda llywodraethau clymbleidiol (Almaen, Ffrainc) yn meithrin llywodraeth gref ac economi sy’n ffynnu.

Rodd yr achos dros FPTP yn gre yn y 1950au lle ‘roedd Llafur a’r Ceidwadwyr at ei gilydd yn hel 97% o’r bleidlais mewn Etholiad Cyffredinol. Yn yr Etholiad Cyffredinol 2010 digynodd y canran yma i 65%, mae’n amlwg felly nid yw FPTP yn adlewyrch dymuniadau’r etholwyr. Un ddadl yn erbyn AV yw ei fod yn rhu cymhleth ac felly ddim yn addas, ond mae gwylwyr nifer o sioeau talent yn medru ei ddeall a defnyddiodd y Ceidwadwyr y system yma i bleidleisio dros David Cameron fel arweinydd. Maen nhw’n deud bod AV’n ddigon da i’r Ceidwadwyr ond dim digon da i ni’r etholwyr ‘dwl’? Dywedodd y Prif Weinidog am AV ‘Nid wyf yn meddwl y dylem ddisodli system mae pawb yn deall gydag un sy’n ddealladwy dim ond i grachach elitaidd’

Mae’r uchod rwyf yn credu, yn ddigon i annog pawb i bleidleisio dros AV

Will a spy with his little eye see your data with the FBI?

2010-12-16T11:44:00.000-08:00

Will a spy with his little eye see your data with the FBI?

In 2011 the 10 year compulsory census will take place. It records a lot of information on every person in every household in Great Britain. The contract for this important and confidential data has been won by non other than the Lockheed Martin Corporation of Maryland USA.
Lockheed Martin is the world’s second largest weapons manufacturer, among its product list is making trident and developing the next generation of nuclear deterrents. Currently the largest area of growth for the company is Intelligence and Surveillance. Part of this work is data collection. Their Vice President Lorraine Martin is quoted as saying:- ‘We want to know what’s going on anytime, any place on the planet.’
All American owned companies are subject to the Patriot Act which legally requires them to pass on to the American government any data held by them. This Act has a highly controversial provision that allows the FBI ‘to make an order requiring the production of any tangible things (inc. books, records, papers, documents and other items) for an investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligent activities’ The American Library Association has opposed this provision as it allows the government to secretly request and obtain library records for large numbers of individuals without any reason to believe that they are involved in illegal activity.
To date the British government has not had any assurances that the data obtained via the 2011 census will not be subject to the Patriot Act. If census data was ‘exported’ to America it could become available to American law enforcement agencies and private entities. The British government claims that this data will be safe, their record however is not good with important data being left in trains and various other places. There are probably many other ‘data loss’ situations we never hear about.
In the 2001 census about 6% of households did not return their forms. The majority of these were Muslims. This section of the community is more likely to be very cautious of the state. With an American company in charge of data collection its hardly likely to result in a better compliance for the census returns this time. Will Lockheed Martin’s involvement be regarded by the population as merely a ruse to get as much information as possible on you and me? Would America allow a foreign company to collect its census data? Who authorised this contract? Isn’t it time we asked our MP what’s going on?
Beth sy’n mynd ymlaen?
Yn 2011 mae’r cyfrifiad mawr yn cymryd lle. Bydd llawer o wybodaeth am bawb ym mhob tŷ ym Mhrydain yn cael ei gofrestru. Mae’r gwaith pwysig yma wedi cael ei ennill gan gwmni Americanaidd - Lockheed Martin.
Lockheed Martin yw’r ail fwyaf cynhyrchydd o arfau yn y byd, mae’r cwmni yn gyfrifol am trident ac yn gweithio ar y genhedlaeth nesaf o arfau niwclear. Yn bresennol, i’r cwmni, y maes gyda’r tyfiant mwyaf yw ‘Gwybodaeth a Gorchwyl’ Rhan o’r gwaith yma yw casglu data. Dywedodd is-lywydd y cwmni:- ‘Rydym eisiau gwybod be sy’n mynd ymlaen bob amser, rhywle yn y byd’
Mae bob cwmni Americanaidd yn dod dan y Patriot Act, sydd yn medru gorfodi’r cwmnïau yma pasio ymlaen data yn eu meddiant. Mae gan y ddeddf yma cymalau dadleuol sy’n gadael yr FBI ‘‘to make an order requiring the production of any tangible things (inc. books, records, papers, documents and other items) for an investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligent activities’ Mae’r Gymdeithas o Lyfrgelloedd America wedi gwrthwynebu’r ‘hawl’ yma gan ei fod yn galluogi’r llywodraeth i ofyn yn ddirgel a chael cofrestrau llyfrgell nifer fawr o unigolion heb reswm digonol i gredu eu bod yn ddrwgweithredwyr.
Hyd yn hyn, nid yw’r llywodraeth Brydeinig wedi cael cadarnhad nad yw’r data yn y cyfrifiad 2011 ddim am ddod dan y Patriot Act. Os yw’r data yma’n cael ei allforio i America, gellir ei ddefnyddio gan adrannau o lywodraeth America a mudiadau preifat. Mae llywodraeth ni’n honni bod y data am fod yn ddiogel, ond nid yw ei record yn dda yn y mater yma, gyda gwybodaeth bwysig a chyfrinachol yn cael ei adel mewn trên a llefydd eraill. Mae’n debygol bod nifer o achlysuron ‘data colledig’ wedi digwydd heb i ni’r cyhoedd wybod amdanynt.
Yn y cyfrifiad yn 2001 ni ddychwelwyd ffurflenni gan tua 6% o dai annedd. Mwslemiaid oed y mwyafrif o rain. Mae’r darn yma o’r gymuned yn fwy tebygol o fod yn wyliadwrus o’r llywodraeth. Gyda chwmni Americanaidd yn rhedeg y sioe hel data nid yw’n argyhoeddi’n dda ar gyfer gwell cydymffurfiad tro yma. Bydd ymglymiad Lockheed Martin yn cael ei ystyried gan y boblogaeth fel tric i gael cymaint o wybodaeth a phosib ar chdi a fi? Buasai America’n gadael cwmni estron casglu data cyfrifiad iddyn nhw? Pwy roddodd y contract yma allan? Ydi’n amser gofyn i’n haelod seneddol beth sy’n mynd ymlaen?

Butcher, Baker and Candlestick maker....

2010-10-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

Who’s who in the Welsh Assembly? – you’ll not find any of the professions mentioned in the title there.

The new Secretary of State for Wales is currently grappling with the rather complex wording of a proposal to be put to a referendum to us in Wales sometime next year. The question will be, do we wish to confer more legislative powers to the Welsh Assembly Government?
With this in mind I’ve done some research on the members of the Assembly who , I understand, unanimously want these extra powers.
The National Assembly for Wales has 60 members, 40 elected on a First Past the Post system and 20 from a regional list. This system of voting is known as AMS (Additional Member System).
The Welsh Assembly website is not amongst the most user-friendly. It’s difficult to find the names of all 60 members – in fact I gave up trying and got a list from the Assembly’s tent in the Eisteddfod this Summer.
Looking further into their background job experiences I have turned to Wikipedia rather than rely on their own websites which may, in some cases be a little too indulgent as to their attributes.
A number of the members have had several jobs, consequently I’ve tried to pick out their main or last job prior to becoming an Assembly Member. There is of course no bar to them continuing to be gainfully employed after having won a seat in the Assembly.
The make up is as follows:-
Solicitors 2
Film Director 1
Headmaster 1
Union Official 1
Journalist 1
Chemical Process Operator 1
Hospital Worker 1
Social Services Management 4
Bank or Building Society 3
Teacher 8
Farmer 2
Lecturer 4
Agricultural Economist 1
Marketing / PR 4
Businessman/woman 2
Minister of Religion 1
Professor 1
Political assistant/officer 6
Civil Servant 1
Doctor (GP) 2
Barrister 1
Consultant 2
Employed in Government 1
Nurse/assistant 2
Charity Manager 1
Civil Engineer 1
Mining Engineer 1
Surveyor 1
Accountant 1
No discernable job history 2

The largest single group are Teachers , together with lecturers they form 20% of the Assembly. Political assistants form 10%. Those with experience in Social Services 6%, similarly for PR/Marketing. Two Members appeared to have no discernable job histories prior to being Assembly Members.
There is a distribution of experience across the Members but it appears that they are ‘light’ when it comes to matters which depend on a knowledge of Science. The large majority of the teachers and lecturers have their qualifications in arts based subjects. With the advent (if it arrives) of new powers will the Members have sufficient knowledge of Maths, Statistics, Physics, Biology and Chemistry to come to a balanced understanding of important technological and technical issues?
The majority of those employed in Wales, outside local/national Government and the NHS are working for small businesses. The small business sector appears to be under-represented in the Assembly who is to speak up for them?
The main parties have it in their power to improve the make-up of the Assembly at the next election via the regional list. A third of the members are made up from this and I believe that it’s beholden on the political parties to pick candidates that will improve on the quality of debate and knowledge in the Assembly. It’s not the time to fill the Assembly seats with yes-men but with members that can make a genuine contribution to the running of our country.
The Welsh Assembly to their credit have adopted a form of Proportional Representation (PR) which allowed more than two parties to have a say in Government. In the 1950 General Election Labour and Conservative took almost 97% of the total vote between them. In the last Election in May, this had dropped to 65%. Our system is designed for 2 parties and needs reform.
When the time comes to vote for extra powers for the Assembly in March and a new Assembly in May, what will the turnout be? In the General Election of 1950 the turnout was 84%, this year 59%.
What’s turned off the voting public? Is it that we now have a new political class of professional politicians that are unrepresentative, aloof and remote from the those they represent?
The politicos will have to pull something out of the bag to persuade the electorate to put a cross on the ballot paper in two separate sessions next Spring.

Mae’r Ysgrifennydd Gwladol newydd dros Gymru yn ymrafael gyda’r gwaith cymhleth o eirio’r cynnig
ar gyfer Refferendwm sydd i’w rhoi ger bron ni’r Gymru blwyddyn nesa. Y cwestiwn yw, ydym ni am roddi mwy o bwerau ddderfwriaethol i’r Cynulliad?
‘Rwyf felly wedi bod yn ymchwilio i aelodau’r Cynulliad, sydd fel ‘rwyf yn deall yn unfrydol eisiau’r pwerau newydd ‘ma’.
Mae gan Gynulliad Cymru 60 o aelodau, 40 wedi eu hethol ar y system draddodiadol (FPP) a 20 o’r rhestr ranbarthol. Gelwir y sustem o bleidleisio yma yn AMS (Sustem Aelod Ychwanegol).
Nid yw wefan y Cynulliad yn un hawdd i’w ddilyn. Mae’n anodd darganfod oll enwau’r 60 o aelodau.
I ddeud y gwir ‘roedd yn haws i fi cael taflen gydag enwau nhw o’r stondin ar faes yr Eisteddfod ym mis Awst blwyddyn ma’.
Yn edrych yn fwy manwl ar eu profiadau yn y byd gwaith, ‘rwyf wedi defnyddio Wikipedia i roi gwybodaeth fwy gwrthrychol yn hytrach na dibynnu ar wefannau’r aelodau.
Fel y dychmygwch mai nifer o aelodau wedi cael sawl swydd dros y blynyddoedd, oherwydd hyn ‘rwyf wedi ceisio pigo allan eu prif neu swydd diweddara cyn cael eu hethol fel Aelod o’r Cynulliad.
Nid oes wrth gwrs gwaharddiad iddynt dal i weithio ar ôl ennill sedd yn y Cynulliad.
Mae’r niferoedd fel a ganlyn:-
Cyfreithwyr 2
Cyfarwyddwr Ffilm 1
Prif Athro 1
Swyddog Undeb 1
Gohebydd 1
Gweithredwr Prosesu Cemegolion 1
Gweithwraig Ysbyty 1
Gweinyddwyr Gwasanaethau Cymdeithasol 4
Banc neu Gymdeithas Adeiladu 3
Athro 8
Ffarmwr 2
Darlithwyr 4
Economegydd Amaethyddol 1
Marchnata / PR 4
Person Busnes 2
Gweinidog yr Efengyl 1
Professor 1
Cynorthwyydd Politicaidd 6
Gwas Sifil 1
Doctor (GP) 2
Bargyfreithiwr 1
Ymgynghorydd 2
Gweithio i’r Llywodraeth 1
Nyrs/cynorthwyydd 2
Rheolwr Elusen 1
Peiriannydd Sifil 1
Peiriannydd Mwyngloddio 1
Tirfesurydd 1
Cyfrifydd 1
Dim hanes eglur o waith 2

Y grŵp mwyaf yw Athrawon, gyda’r Darlithwyr maent yn ffurfio 20% o’r Cynulliad. Mae Cynorthwywr Politicaidd yn ffurfio 10%. Yr aelodau gyda phrofiad mewn Gwasanaethau Cymdeithasol 6%, ‘run fath a PR/Marchnata. Mae 2 aelod heb hanes eglur o waith cyn mynd i’r Cynulliad.
Mae ‘na dosraniad o brofiad ymysg yr aelodau, ond mae’n ymddangos bod hi’n ysgafn yn y Cynulliad pan mae hi’n dod i faterion Gwyddonol. Mae mwyafrif o’r Athrawon a’r Darlithwyr gyda chymwysterau yn yr ochr Celfyddydau. Os daw’r pwerau newydd bydd gan yr Aelodau ddigon o wybodaeth ym Màths, Ystadegau, Ffiseg, Bywydeg a Chemeg i ddod a dealltwriaeth gydbwysol o faterion technolegol?
Mae mwyafrif o’r rhai sydd mewn gwaith yng Nghymru, tu allan i lywodraeth leol/ gwladol a’r NHS yn gweithio i fusnesau bach. Mae cynrychiolaeth y sector busnes yn wan yn y Cynulliad, pwy sydd am siarad drostynt?
Mae gan y prif partion y modd i wella ansawdd y Cynulliad yn 2011 trwy’r Rhestr Rhanbarthol. Mae un rhan o dair o Aelodau’r Cynulliad yn dod o’r rhestr yma, mae’n bwysig iawn i ddewis Aelodau sydd am wella ansawdd y dadleuon ac ychwannegu at wybodaeth y Cynulliad. Ni ddylid llenwi’r seti gwag yma gyda ‘yes-man’ ond Aelodau sydd am gyfrannu tuag at wella Cymru.
Mae angen canmol y Cynulliad am ddewis ffurf o PR, sydd yn gadael mwy na 2 barti cael deud eu deud yn y Llywodraeth.

Yn yr Etholiad Cyffredinol yn 1950 llwyddodd Llafur a’r Ceidwadwyr cymeryd bron 97% o’r pleidlais. Yn yr etholiad mis Mai ‘roedd y canran yma wedi gollwng i 65%. Mae angen diwigio’r sustem yma.
Pan fydd angen pleidleisio yn mis Mawrth am bwerau ychwannegol ac yn mis Mai am Gynulliad newydd be fydd y niferoedd? Yn yr Etholiad Cyffredinol yn 1950 ‘roedd y turnout yn 84%, blwyddyn yma 59%. Be sydd wedi troi’r pleidleiswyr yn erbyn y bleidlais? A oes gennym dosbarth poleticaidd nad yw’n cynrychioli’r pobl, ar wahan ac yn bell o’r rhai ‘rydynt yn cynrychioli?
Bydd rhaid i’r politicos fod yn radical iwan i berswadio’r cyhoedd ddod allan dwy waith i bleidleisio Gwanwyn nesa.

Sign of the times

2010-07-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

Sign of the Times? – Coronation Day Gift

Last week, looking for an item in the attic, I came across a number of discarded half-forgotten keepsakes thrust into cardboard boxes stuffed under the cobwebbed eaves of the house.
L.P. Hartley in his book ‘The Go-Between’ wrote ‘The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there’. I experienced this delving into albums of old black and white photos, letters written by relatives long dead and newspaper cuttings of incidents no longer relevant or remembered by the living.
Whenever I visit the attic to fetch or retrieve a particular item it inevitably becomes a long drawn out session. A book, article or diary catches my attention and off I’m dragged into a world of partial recollections, forgetting why I’d come to the attic in the first place.
This visit followed the same scenario, with an item that reminded me of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth in June 1953. I can dimly remember the occasion, I was five years old at the time, my brother and I, in honour of the event, had been bought cowboy suits, complete with cap-gun and sheriff’s badge. We were both looking forward to the day as several of our relatives had been invited to watch the coronation on our 14” black and white TV. Among those invited were my cousins, they were a little older than me. Consequently I assumed they’d be more interested in playing cowboys and Indians than sitting in front of a tiny TV watching a boring coronation ceremony.
No such luck however, they were mesmerised by the event, as a result Coronation Day for me was a bit of an anti-climax.
The item that sent me reminiscing was a pocket sized copy of the New Testament in Welsh, with E11R emblazoned on the front cover (see illustration). Inside, together with my name and address was printed a paragraph from the coronation ceremony:- In the Coronation Service a Bible is presented to her Majesty the Queen with the following words:-
‘We present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this World affords. Here is Wisdom: this is the Royal Law: these are the Lively Oracles of God’
Upon making enquiries I understand that these New Testaments were given to every child in school (i.e. 5 – 15 years) by the Caernarfonshire Education Committee. However the practice was more widespread in that apparently many schools in Wales received this gift to commemorate the coronation.
It set me thinking, what ‘gift’ would be suitable when/if Charles ascends to the throne? It’s highly unlikely to be any sort of religious text, possibly a voucher from Tesco or a packet of Duchy Originals? Today’s society is much more cosmopolitan and iconoclastic, I wonder if there’s a ‘committee’ somewhere drawing up a shortlist of possible articles?
Recently the Gideons presented a Bible to all the children in a number of local schools. I understand that the reaction of some of the pupils, after the gift giving ceremony was to tear up the book and scatter the pages in the school grounds. It may have been the reaction to an unwanted gift, a manifestation of a rebellious nature or a rejection of status quoism.
In 1953 as the country gradually crept out of an age of post-war austerity and into a new Elizabethan period, religion still played an important part in our national psyche and place in the World. It was an age of certainty of religion and increasing prosperity. What would have been more natural than to give a copy of the New Testament to school children, together with the printed endorsement. The coronation in 1953 came prior to the Suez crisis, and relative decline of UK’s power and international influence.
Whenever Charles is crowned King, the coronation ‘gift’ ,if there is one, will once again, need to reflect an assessment of Great Britain, her values and international standing. Any suggestions?

World Cup Bad for Business?

2010-06-02T15:20:00.000-07:00

Football World Cup Bad for Business?
Talking to local businesses recently in the tourist trade one of their concerns this Summer, apart from the constant stream of bad economic news from all quarters, requiring us to tighten our belts, is the World Cup.
Why should such a significant event have any influence on tourism here in Gwynedd? The Olympics in Beijing did not seem to have this effect.
Speaking to an owner of several self-catering holiday cottages, he experienced this down-turn in business 4 years ago when the previous world cup was held. The bookings were poor for the peak months as his customer base were glued to their sets watching the progress of England in the championship.
The husband would promise the wife and kids a holiday as soon as the World Cup had finished. The longer the England remains in the contest the longer the delay for the holiday break.
Four years ago England made a fairly early exit from the competition. My friend the owner of the holiday accomodation said that as soon as this happened he was snowed under with requests for accomodation.
Will it be the same this year? Will the tourist businesses in Gwynedd be crossing their fingers for an early exit for England? We shall see.

Hidden Job Opportunities

2010-04-05T03:29:00.001-07:00

Hidden Job Opportunnities

I took the opportunity on the 1st weekend in March to visit the Llanberis Mountain Film Festival. The event has an ambitious programme of 52 films, 19 lectures, stands, displays and a photographic exhibition. It was well organised and enthusiastically manned, in the main by volunteers.
Attendance was good and I understand that over 600 tickets were sold for the Saturday evening events.
Outdoor events such as hill walking and climbing are more popular than they’ve ever been. More people walk/climb on Saturday/Sunday than watch all the weekend British football matches.
Outdoor centres have seen a big expansion in numbers, I believe there are now nearly 100 of them located in or near the Snowdonia National Park. A glance at any daily or weekly newspaper and you’re sure to come across adverts for walking boots, tents, rucksacks and other outdoor paraphernalia. The outfits that sell these goods don’t pay good money for these adverts for the fun of it, there’s a significant and growing market out there for their wares.
I understand that some 5,000 – 8,000 full time equivalent jobs exist in North Wales (very many in Gwynedd) in the outdoor sector. Unfortunately it’s a minority of locals that actually hold down a job in this sector. Why is this? In the main we, and I include the Council and the educational establishment, have not recognised this job opportunity and have invested their resources into traditional games such as football, rugby and hockey. Are there 5,000 – 8,000 jobs for these sports in North Wales?
In 2006-07 when I was Chairman of Cyngor Gwynedd on my visits to the Education and Leisure sectors of the Council I saw many employees in tracksuits but none in walking boots. To be fair Gwynedd has belatedly become more aware of the opportunities in the outdoor sector and is directing more resources into them.
The outdoor sector still has, I believe, a lot of growth left in it. Gwynedd is ideally placed to take advantage of this with the mountains and coastline giving it a springboard for local job creation.
Llanberis Mountain Film Festival, an event held every 2 years, has had sufficient sponsorship now to be run on an annual basis. If you get the opportunity give it a visit next year, the taster video is still on YouTube, if you’re watching that you may as well look at the Banff Mountain Film Festival – as some of their output is shown in the Llanberis Festival. The Best Short Film Award was won by ‘Wordsworth-Quest for the Sublime’ directed by local film maker, mountaineer John Whittle. It depicts a midnight ascent of Snowdon by William Wordsworth in 1791. The film has now won a slot to be shown in the Trento Film Festival – Italy.

Encircling the Circle

2010-02-23T12:39:00.000-08:00

Councillors come in all shapes, sizes and abilities. Every 4 years the electorate has the opportunity to alter the above combination. Some wards have contested elections every time – Pwllheli North (my old Ward) has had, I believe a contested election for some 30 years.
There are however Councillors representing their Wards on the Local Authority for over 20 years, that have never fought an election, being elected unopposed every 4 years. Is this good for democracy?
Diverse interests, abilities and personal priorities will govern the effectiveness of your Councillor. Some have very specific ward concerns i.e. a drainage problem, new school or Council run estate.
Usually these concerns were the reason for originally standing for the Council seat.
Most Councillors, newly elected get a shock; the Council is a complicated piece of local government equipment involving a lot of research and commitment to unlock its labyrinthine structures. There are committees, sub-committees and working group reports and meetings to attend. This usually involves a large commitment both in time and effort. It’s not uncommon to see a proportion of new Councillors fall by the wayside after a few months, non attendance of the above is a sure sign that they’re not pulling their weight. The rather complicated and non user friendly Gwynedd website allows one to track your Councillor’s attendance (or non-attendance) at meetings – it makes interesting reading.
The work of Councillors is usually divided into 2 broad areas, the specific (i.e. local or Ward issues) and strategic, matters affecting the governance of Gwynedd as a whole. This latter can be very diverse, from long term planning for education to flood defences.
My experience was that many Councillors were more comfortable with the micro (i.e. local issues) as opposed to the macro (policy decisions).
I can remember one Councillor who was very concerned about the location of a new public toilet in his ward, but much more comfortable with helping to choose the colour of the paint on the toilet doors. It’s easy to slip into the temptation of becoming a one man/woman parish Council, eager to report every pot-hole in the road, broken window and paving slab so that they can get their picture in the paper. There’s room for this kind of work, but a County Councillor needs to have a much broader horizon.
The most difficult decisions usually are planning ones. Almost weekly there’s a report in the paper about a family who have had their planning application to build a house rejected. This is followed by the usual snowstorm of letters castigating the planning authority for being hard hearted, skin-flints without an ounce of compassion. What the letter-writers fail to realize is that if every applicant was allowed free rein to build whatever and wherever he liked. Ignoring the planning rules we’d soon see some very unwelcome structures and business activities springing up in the County.
The 1st election is the easiest, you’re the insurgent, the outsider, able to pick and choose the subjects and weak points on which to attack the Council and current Councillor. He or she, as part of the establishment has to defend what may be unpopular but essential decisions. New Councillors, when they face their 2nd election will find that the perception of them by the electorate has changed, they’re no longer one of ‘us’ (the elector) but one of ‘them’ the Council. The longer you’re part of the establishment the more you have to defend the system.
In essence, time, commitment and perseverance go a long way to making a good Councillor. He/she’s got to be ready to listen to the electorate and learn on the job, and avoid the temptation to be continually criticising the Council. Bad mouthing the Council is easy, it administers about 15 major services, so finding fault is no great discovery. The more difficult task is to contribute in a positive and constructive way to create a better service for the community.
Next election – in just over 2 years time, if you think you can improve your community and you’ve got what it takes, stand for election, and if you get in – make a difference.

Circular Tour

2009-11-24T12:20:00.000-08:00

Circular Tour
1995 saw the 22 new Unitary Authorities in Wales begin their life as shadow authorities, as Local Government in Wales was from now on a 2 tier instead of a 3 tier authority. In preparation for the transfer of powers in a year’s time, Gwynedd in its new form had to ‘shadow’ the existing Councils. In this case Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd and the former ‘Gwynedd’ County Council.
In principle, it was a good idea to reduce the bureaucratic burden from 3 to 2 tiers, this would do away with duplication and lead to a more equitable distribution of services in the area under one authority – Gwynedd. Invariably theory is simpler than practice, many unforeseen consequences bubbled up to the surface of the cauldron of re-organisation.
One consequence was that some of the authorities had too small a population, Ynys Mon is an example, and some were too small an area – Wrexham for instance.
Another consequence was that there were too many Councillors allocated to some of the Councils. Gwynedd in 1996 had 83- far too many to run an efficient organisation.
It became apparent that there was overlap and duplication as services from the 4 previous Local Authorities were amalgamated. This has proved a long standing, complicated and frustrating issue. Work practices, wages and contracts of employment re-negotiation take years to resolve.
The media – especially newspapers have ‘heroes and villains’. Amongst the current batch of ‘heroes’ are Bryn Terfel, Katherine Jenkins, the Welsh Rugby Team and those that are fighting in Afghanistan. Criticisms of the above is not generally printed. ‘Villains’ are numerous with an ever changing list of candidates, there is however a stock list, MP’s, and Councils/Councillors. Consequently Councils tend to get a bad press.
My experience of over 21 years has been that Gwynedd are good at regulatory services, planning, licences and permissions and general administration. Having represented the Council on several occasions in meetings, seminars and delegations, both in Wales and abroad one had the chance to compare Gwynedd’s staff with staff from other Councils (presumably Gwynedd’s staff also had a chance to compare their Councillors with that of other Councils!). Generally speaking I found that the staff representing Gwynedd in these functions were at least as good as and in many instances better than equivalent staff in other Councils. This is largely due, I suspect to the lack of job opportunities here in Gwynedd, there’s no British Aerospace just down the road, consequently it’s easier to attract and retain staff.
This lack of job opportunities both benefits and disadvantages the Gwynedd economy. The benefits are outlined above – good staff recruitment. The disadvantages, good staff are enticed into working for the Council to the detriment of local commerece and industry who generally cannot compete with the wages and pensions of the Local Authority.
Local Government has many facets, and carries an inordinate amount of historical baggage. Since the 2nd World War as more tasks, statutes and obligations were bestowed on the Local Authority, there’s been a ‘Cradle to the Grave’ mentality fostered, both by Councillors and officers that the Council should carry out each and every task relevant to the well being of the electorate.
This has led to stratification within the Council – several layers of management prior to reaching front line services. It’s also led to the Council carrying out tasks more appropriate to outside contractors.
When the new Unitary Authorities were set up in 1995 they were supposed to be ‘intelligent purchasers’ – i.e. if outsourcing was the better alternative, then buy in that commodity or service rather than self supply within the resources of the Council.
Unfortunately this does not happen often enough, Gwynedd prefers to use its own internal resources rather than outsource.
With severe cuts due in the future is there a future for Gwynedd – with out a doubt yes. It will however have to take a much more realistic view of its staff numbers and be prepared to divest itself of some of its obligations and outsource some of its services.
To balance the social and monetery equation, key players in this strategy will be the Councillors.
In my next blog I’ll be looking at their contribution to Gwynedd.

'Squaring' the circle

2009-09-30T11:50:00.000-07:00

‘Squaring’ the Circle
In my last blog I wrote that I’d look in greater detail at some aspects of Local Government. Local Government in the form of Councils has been around for several hundred years. Some towns like Caernarfon and Pwllheli were given Borough status which gave the Mayor and Council extra powers and privileges.
Since 1974 we’ve seen 2 major Local Government re-organisations. The one in 1974 was perhaps the most radical. Prior to this, in Caernarfonshire (the old County Council) there were very many town and rural district Councils. They were charged with administering several services, the building and allocation of Council Houses, waste collection and disposal, collection of rates, street sweeping, cemeteries and drainage being amongst them. The County Council dealt with Highways, Education, Social Services and small holdings amongst other duties and services. Central Government felt that this model of Local Government was both antiquated and inefficient and needed reform. Although the system of Local Government in France bears a remarkable resemblance to our pre 1974 arrangement, with a large element of autonomy given to local towns and areas – it seems to work for the French.
It would be a mistake however to assume that Whitehall was driven solely by a strategic vision of better Local Government via radical re-organisation. Other elements came into play. One important factor was the experience of both the Wilson and Heath Governments, of industrial unrest. Both administrations had suffered from the effects of serious country-wide disruption from powerful unions. Partly as a result of this, Britain, once known as the ‘workshop of the world’ was losing out to other countries in the field of manufactured goods, in particular Japan. I can remember some of the 1st Japanese cars coming to the area in the late 1960’s, curiosities to begin with, later to become a common sight on our roads.
Manufacturing is expensive, having worked in the manufacturing industry for over 30 years; my yardstick would be between £50,000 and £150,000 of capital expenditure to create one decent job. Some of the high tech jobs (motor manufacture, aero-space) require a capital investment of around half a million pounds per job.
Both Labour and Tory Governments realised that as Britain was losing jobs in manufacturing, they would have to plug the ‘jobs lost’ gap with something. Thus was born the age of the beaurocrat, it was much cheaper to build a new Local Government office block, furnish it with desks, computers and other peripherals than build a factory and equip it out.
As we were ushered into the post industrial age, the new ‘knowledge economy’ also became the rules and regulations economy.
The 1974 re-organisation in Wales created 8 large County Councils – Gwynedd being one of them, and 37 smaller District Councils.
Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd and Ynys Mon were amongst some of the councils within Gwynedd.
The previous Councils, such as Caernarfon, Pwllheli, Bangor etc were demoted and given effectively a ‘parish council’ status, no proper statutory powers and only a consultative role in some aspects of Local Government. An opportunity had been missed here as many of the District Councils were too small, it would have been better if some of the larger Town Councils had remained with augmented powers, under large County Councils.
The 3 tier, County, District and Town Council model of Local Government was thus established and ran from 1974 – 1995. It had some successes, notably in my home town of Pwllheli the establishment of new harbour facilities and a leisure centre. Caernarfon also had several beneficial developments under Arfon, the leisure centre, and several million pounds spent on new roads and the upgrading of existing buildings.
Two drawbacks of the County/District system were duplication, both systems had Economic Development Departments, Planning Departments, and other overlaps, the other were ‘demarcation’ disputes. The County Council was responsible for Highway maintenance, but the District Council was responsible for sweeping the pavements. Many a dispute arose from where did the rubbish come from, street or pavement? Who was responsible for killing the weeds, were they growing in the pavement or on the roadside?
By the early 1990’s there was a realisation in Whitehall that Local Government needed a structural re-think. The Conservative Government had already suffered a rude electoral shock as the infamous Poll Tax was binned; consequently it was very wary of any new experiments with Local Government. There was however an ideal venue to try out the new Unitary Authority regime – Wales. There would be no electoral losses there, as there was nothing to lose. The Conservative vote was very weak in Wales.
In my next blog I’ll elaborate on the re-organisation of 1995, as Gwynedd with the rest of Wales stepped into the new world of the Unitary Authorities.

Sgwario’r Cylch
Yn y blog dwytha ysgrifennais fy mod am edrych yn fwy manwl ar rhai agweddau o Lywodraeth Leol yn y blog yma. Mae Llywodraeth Leol - sef y Cynghorau wedi bod gyda ni am gannoedd o flynyddoedd. Gwelwyd rhai trefi fel Caernarfon a Phwllheli yn cael statws Bwrdeistrefol ‘roedd yn cyflwyno pwerau ychwanegol i’r Meiri a’r Cynghorwyr.
Ers 1974 ‘rydym wedi gweld 2 adrefniad sylweddol o Lywodraeth Leol. ‘Roedd yr un yn 1974 yn fy marn i yn y fwyaf radical. Cyn 1974, yn Sir Gaernarfon (yr hen gyngor sir) roedd nifer fawr o gynghorau tref a chynghorau gwledig. ‘Roeddent yn gyfrifol am weinyddu nifer o wasanaethau, yn eu mysg, adeiladu Tai Cyngor, hel sbwriel a’i waredu, hel trethi, ysgubo strydoedd, rhedeg mynwentydd ac edrych ar ôl draeniau. Cyfrifoldeb y Cyngor Sir oedd Priffyrdd, Addysg, Gwasanaethau Cymdeithasol a nifer o ddyletswyddau eraill. ‘Roedd Llywodraeth Ganolog yn teimlo bod y modd yma o Lywodraeth Leol yn hen ffasiwn ac aneffeithiol ac yn hen bryd i newid y drefn. Serch hynny mae’r drefn o Lywodraeth Leol yn Ffrainc yn debyg iawn i’r drefn yma cyn 1974, gydag elfen sylweddol o hunanlywodraeth i drefi lleol ac ardaloedd - mae’n gweithio’n iawn yn Ffrainc.
Byddai’n gamgymeriad i feddwl bod Whitehall yn cael ei uru’n unig gan y ddelwedd o well Lywodraeth Leol wrth ail-drefnu. ‘Roedd elfennau eraill yn bwysig. Un elfen bwysig oedd profiad chwerw llywodraethau Wilson a Heath o aflonyddwch diwydiannol. Dioddodd y ddwy weinyddiaeth dan bŵer undebau cryfion. Yn rhannol oherwydd hyn, roedd Prydain, a elwir yn y gorffennol fel ‘the workshop of the world’ yn colli allan i wledydd eraill, yn enwedig i Japan. ‘Rwyf yn cofio, rhai o’r ceir cyntaf o Japan yn cyrraedd yr ardal yma yn y 60au, testun siarad am gyfnod ond cyn bo hir yn cael eu gweld yn aml ar ein ffyrdd.
Mae cynhyrchu’n ddrud, ‘rwyf wedi gweithio yn y diwydiant cynhyrchu am dros 30 mlynedd, ac ‘rwyf yn amcangyfrif bod hi’n costio rhwng £50,000 a £150,000 o gyfalaf i greu un swydd. Mae rhai o’r swyddi ‘high tech’ am gostio tua hanner miliwn yr un.
Sylweddolodd y llywodraethau Llafur a Cheidwadol bod y wlad yn colli swyddi cynhyrchu, ‘roedd rhaid arbed y sefyllfa. Felly ganwyd oes y ‘biwrocrat’ , ‘roedd yn llawer rhatach adeiladu swyddfeydd ar gyfer Llywodraeth Leol, llenwi nhw gyda desgiau, cyfrifiaduron a.y.b. yn lle adeiladu ffactori gyda pheiriannau cynhyrchu.
Fel ‘roeddem yn cael ein hebrwng i’r oes ôl-ddiwydiannol, bu’r ‘economi gwybodaeth’ yn datblygu’n economi rheolau a rheolaethau.
Creodd yr ad-drefniad yng Nghymru yn 1974, 8 Cyngor Sir fawr a 37 Cynghorau Dosbarth llai. ‘Roedd Cynghorau Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd ac Ynys Môn ymysg y rhai tu fewn i Wynedd.
Rhoddwyd i’r hen gynghorau, sef Caernarfon, Pwllheli, Bangor a.y.b. statws sy’n debyg iawn i gyngor plwyf iddynt. Nid oedd ganddynt bwerau ffurfiol a dim ond rôl ymgynghorol ar rhai agweddau o Lywodraeth Leol. Collwyd cyfle yn yr adrefniad yma, ‘roedd rhai o’r Cynghorau Dosbarth yn rhu fach, efallai gwell syniad buasai rhai o’r Cynghorau Dref wedi aros gyda mwy o bwerau.

Peeling back the rhetoric

2009-08-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

Peeling back the rhetoric
The scribblers have been out in force lately fulminating furiously in the local papers about the alleged miss-deeds of Cyngor Gwynedd. From the supply of laptops for Councillors to large salaries for those who work in the Council their righteous anger know no bounds.
So let’s look behind the rhetoric of some of these letters. Laptops that cost some £17,000 to us the ratepayer – a complete waste of money? If you do your homework properly on this subject you find that the Council makes a small ‘profit’ after less than 2 years. How so? Councillors get a £300 per annum communication allowance provided they don’t borrow a laptop and peripherals from the Council. If they do take up the laptop offer they lose the £300 for each and every year. What’s the cost of a laptop? About £300 plus say £150 for the rest of the peripherals, so after about 18 months the Council’s (ratepayer) in profit. The argument against a Councillor using a Council laptop is weak – how ignorant do you want your Councillors to be?
One letter writer proposed a slash and burn strategy for the Council, cutting wages, jobs and virtually anything that shows signs of costing the ratepayer.
With my experience of serving on the Council for over 20 years I got the impression that it did some things very well. However, a case can be made that it should not be undertaking some tasks and services at all.
In any organisation employing over 8,000 people, no matter how efficient that set-up, there’s bound to be wasted manpower. Due to the cutbacks and to avoid large scale and sudden redundancies, the Council could adopt a policy of job re-assessment, implementing this when the 500 or so employees leave every year due to retirement or moving to new employment.
Gwynedd is probably the biggest landowner in the County. It is sitting on millions of pounds of assets, buildings, small holdings and land that need to be reviewed with the intention of selling some of these freeholds.
The Council should act as an intelligent purchaser, buying more often than it does from outside sources instead of trying to supply the goods or services itself.
In my next blog I’ll look at some of these topics in greater detail.

Mae’r ysgrifenwyr i’r papurau lleol wedi bod wrthi’n gyson yn herio Cyngor Gwynedd am eu ffaeleddau. Maent yn gandryll ynglŷn â laptops i’r Cynghorwyr a chyflogau enfawr i’r swyddogion.
Beth am edrych tu ôl i’r cyhuddiadau ymfflamychol yn eu llythyrau. Mae’r cynllun laptops yn costio tua £17,000 i’w ariannu - wast o bres?
Mae ychydig o waith cartref yn dangos bod y Cyngor yn ennill o fewn 2 flynedd – sut hynny? Mae bob Cynghorydd yn cael £300 y flwyddyn o dal am chostau cyfathrebu ar yr amod eu bod nhw ddim yn defnyddio laptops y Cyngor. Os ydynt yn defnyddio y laptops yma maent yn colli’r £300 am bob blwyddyn. Mae modd talu am laptop a’r ychwanegiadau mewn tua 18 mis, felly ar ol yr amser yma, mae’r Cyngor yn neud ‘elw’ allan o’r trefniant. Gwan yw’r ddadl yn erbyn Cynghorydd cael laoptop – pa mor ddi-glem ‘rydych chi eisiau eich Cynghorwyr fod?
Mae un ysgrifennwr yn cynnig torri swyddi, cyflogau a bron bob gwasanaeth i’r carn.
Gyda’r profiad o wasanaethu ar y Cyngor am dros 20 mlynedd, ‘roeddwn yn ymwybodol bod y Cyngor yn cario allan rhai gweithgareddau’n dda iawn. Ar y llaw arall, mae angen gofyn y cwestiwn y delir y Cyngor cario allan rhai tasgau o gwbl.
Mewn unrhyw gyfundrefn sy’n cyflogi dros 8,000 o bobl, mae gwastraff yn sicr o ddigwydd. Oherwydd y dirwasgiad ac i osgoi diswyddiadau ar raddfa fawr, mae’n bosib i’r Cyngor mabwysiadu polisi o ail-asesu swyddi gan ddod a hwn i rym pan mae o gwmpas 500 o weithwyr y Cyngor yn gadael eu swyddi bob blwyddyn, sef yn ymddeol neu symud i swydd arall.
‘Rwyf yn credu mai Cyngor Gwynedd yw’r tirfeddiannwr mwyaf y Sir. Mae’r eiddo yma’n cynnwys adeiladau, man daliadau a thir sydd angen ei adolygi gyda’r bwriad o werthu canran o rain.
Mae angen i’r Cyngor weithredu fel pwrcaswr cydwybodol sy’n prynu’r gwasanaethau yma i mewn yn hytrach na cheisio ‘neud y job eu hunain.
Yn y blog nesa byddaf yn edrych ar rhai o’r pynciau’n fwy manwl.

What Sort of Message?

2009-06-07T03:23:00.000-07:00

What sort of Message?
When I was at Bangor University in the early 1970’s it was common, as in other universities, to see graffiti daubed somewhere on the campus. Some scrawled in huge ungainly letters, others in neat uniform capitals. It seemed that some of the authors spent a considerable time and effort on their compositions possibly to the detriment of their studies.
One particular piece of graffiti I can still remember, not because of its message – there appeared to be none. Nor its artistic execution, it had 2 words small, plain and in capitals. BUM DAVIES was written everywhere. Usually graffiti scrawlers are content with a few locations, but this person’s effort appeared on the walls of virtually every toilet, male and female, on ceilings, walls and gate posts in the University. One evening on entering the Students Union’s cloakroom to get my jacket, there he was pre-occupied with his indelible pen writing the same two words BUM DAVIES. We both stood there, uncertain of each other’s reaction, I broke the silence by uttering ‘What do you think you’re doing?’. He swept passed me and up the stairs.
I never saw him again, what was his message?
Confused messages are coming regularly from our politicos. Currently, some of our MPs with an enhanced sense of entitlement are flailing around trying to justify their ‘expenses’. Sometimes the message is hidden behind the rhetoric, in this case – ‘we abided by the rules, we’re sorry’ – in fact means: – we took an opportunity to fleece the taxpayer, we’re sorry we got caught.
Recently, the arrest of 12 Pakistani students, proclaimed by our Prime Minister as a ‘very big terrorist plot’ was a fiasco. Similarly the ricin plot, airline bomb plot, London Underground cyanide plot all hailed as dangers beyond the simple citizen’s imagination, came to nothing.
The common thread behind these apocalyptic warnings is ‘Be very much afraid’. The message is that our political masters are attempting to frighten us, the public into surrendering our rights and subjecting us to ever more surveillance.
I suspect that Swine Flu is to some extent a political godsend in that as it is frequently hailed by our political class as a soon to arrive pandemic. One gets the impression that some scientists are equally susceptible to exaggerating the dangers of Swine flu – a lucrative research grant perhaps? Searching the internet and papers one of the very few articles that puts Swine flu into perspective declaring that it’s a Eurasian epidemic as it appears to have originated from pigs. Pigs are not native to the Americas, having been introduced from Europe over the past 400 years. By way of contrast the thousands of years that the populations of Europe, Asia and Africa have lived with domesticated animals, this has allowed them to evolve greater immunity and genetic resistance to domestic animal derived viruses. Will swine flu follow the same route as Mad Cow Disease and Bird flu?
In an information overload society all organisations have to shout their message longer and harder, what’s crucial is that a fright fest of propaganda should not destroy the true meaning of the message.
What of BUM DAVIES? I suspect that, like those who carved initials on trees, he wanted to leave his mark but didn’t want to be known.

Fragmentation Politics for Gwynedd?

2009-04-06T04:31:00.000-07:00

Bangor bangs the drum for Fragmentation Politics?

On Saturday the 21st March a Bangor based pressure group organised a march along the High St. to the town clock in the centre of Bangor. Some 200 turned up to articulate their grievances; the main complaints were against Cyngor Gwynedd for the lack of re-generation initiatives and in particular, facilities for the young in the city.
The citizens of Bangor and other towns in Gwynedd can justifiably point the finger at the lack of urban investment in their communities as compared to Caernarfon. By my reckoning some £25 million has been spent on Caernarfon town’s infrastructure since re-organisation in 1995.
The good people of Caernarfon are the best judge of how well that money’s been spent, but spent it has.
The organisers of the Bangor protest and those that attended felt that both the City Council and Cyngor Gwynedd had ignored their requests for long enough for them to form a party and contest elections. If this had got off the ground this time last year, just prior to the Local Government elections, who knows what effect they might have had. Their main electoral obstacle now is to keep up the momentum and enthusiasm for an electoral change for a further 3 years before the next elections. This will not be an easy job.
Single issue or fragmentation politics is generally healthy for the body politic. It gets the powers that be to concentrate and acknowledge that they may have overlooked some aspect(s) or problem(s). There are many examples, the suffragettes and pay legislation, to name but two.
Another reason for fragmentation politics is the low esteem that most politicians are held in the eyes of the public. This regard for them has recently fallen off the bottom end of the graph with Home Secretary Jacquie Smith’s ‘imaginative’ expenses claim for a 2nd home, together with her husband’s somewhat unorthodox use of public monies to rent ‘adult’ video films. This coupled with Education Minister Tony Mcnulty’s ‘expense’ of a 2nd home in his parent’s house gives the impression that politicians spend some effort on politics but their real talents are reserved for their expense claims.
An example of politics of fragmentation closer home is Cyngor Mon where the auditor has been minded to write a report on the conduct of the Council. The Chief Executive’s contract has been short circuited and reports of Councillors flouncing out of meetings is quite common.
Pressure group politics however can be short sighted. Pressure groups, by their very name exist to apply pressure, not to take a fair and balanced view – local or national government finds it very difficult to satisfy them or accomodate their sometimes parochial desires.
Pressure group/fragmentation politics is to be found now in Cyngor Gwynedd. Llais Gwynedd formed for the sole purpose of rescuing some small rural schools from closing won 13 seats in the local government elections nearly a year ago. It is too early to tell if Llais Gwynedd can gravitate from merely being a party looking for an argument on schools into evolving a broad credible political strategy for Gwynedd.
A balance between the micro (lack of investment in particular areas of the county) and the macro (balanced expenditure across the county on numerous services) is very hard to achieve. Fragmentation politics will not make the job any easier.

Bangor yn dyrnu’r drwm ar gyfer Politics Darnio
Ar Sadwrn 21ain o Fawrth ymgyrchodd grŵp o Fangor ar hyd y Stryd Fawr i’r cloc yng nghanol y ddinas. Mynychodd tua 200 i leisio eu cwynion, y rhan fwyaf yn erbyn Cyngor Gwynedd am y diffyg strategaethau adfywio, ac yn enwedig i’r ifanc yn y ddinas.
Mae gan ddinasyddion Bangor a threfydd eraill yng Ngwynedd perffaith hawl i bwyntio’r bys at y diffyg gwariant trefol yn eu cymunedau i gymharu â Chaernarfon. ‘Rwyf yn amcangyfrif bod tua £25 miliwn wedi ei wario ar isadeiledd y dref ers ail-drefnu yn 1995,
Trigolion Caernarfon yw’r bobl gorau i farnu ar ddilysrwydd y gwariant yma, ond mae’r pres wedi ei wario.
‘Roedd trefnwyr protest Bangor a’r rhai a fynychodd y cyfarfod yn teimlo bod Cyngor Dinas Bangor a Chyngor Gwynedd wedi anwybyddu eu gofynion am ddigon felly, ‘roeddent am ffurfio parti politicaidd a chwffio etholiadau. Pwy a ŵyr be fasa wedi digwydd blwyddyn yn ôl os ‘roedd y parti yma mewn bodolaeth blwyddyn yn ôl, cyn yr etholiadau Llywodraeth Leol? Nid yw cadw’r momentum i fyny am 3 mlynedd arall am fod yn job hawdd.
Mae politics un pwnc neu ddarniog, ar y cyfan yn iach i’r gyfundrefn boliticaidd. Mae’n gorfodi’r pwerau sydd mewn grym i ganolbwyntio a chydnabod bod rhai agweddau neu broblemau wedi cael eu hanwybyddu.
Mae ‘na rheswm arall am poletics darnio, y diffyg parch sydd gan ran helaeth o’r boblogaeth i wleidyddwyr. Mae’r diffyg parch ‘ma wedi plymio’n is yn ddiweddar gyda’r Ysgrifennydd Gwladol Jaquie Smith a’i ail dy, a’i gwr yn llogi ffilmiau ‘adult’ ar bwrs y wlad. Ychwanegwch y Gweinidog Addysg Tony Mcnulty a’i ‘ail gartref’ yn nhŷ ei dad a’i fam ac mae’r cyhoedd yn cael yr argraff bod gwleidyddion yn ymdrechu rhywfaint yn politics ond yn cadw eu talentau arbennig ar gyfer tal a threuliau.
Mae esiampl o poltics darnio’n agosach adref yng Nghyngor Môn, ble mae’r archwilydd wedi ysgrifennu adroddiad ar ymddygiad y Cyngor. Mae contract y Prif Swyddog wedi cael ei ddiddymu ac mae achosion o Gynghorwyr yn gadael cyfarfodydd yn ddisymwth yn aml iawn.
Ellir politics y ‘pressure group’ bod yn fyr ei olwg. Mae ‘pressure group’ fel mae’r enw’n deud yn bodoli i osod pwysa ar y gyfundrefn a dim i geisio dod at farn gytbwys ar y mater sy’n eu poeni nhw. Mae llywodraeth ganolog a lleol yn ffeindio hi’n anodd felly delio gyda nhw.
Mae ‘pressure group’ politics ‘nawr yng Ngwynedd. Ffurfiwyd Llais Gwynedd ar gyfer achub ysgolion bach y wlad. Enillwyd 13 o seti bron blwyddyn yn ôl. Mae’n rhu cynnar i weld os yw Llais Gwynedd am esblygu o fod yn barti’n chwilio am ddadl ar ysgolion i ddatblygu strategaeth boliticaidd ar gyfer Gwynedd.
Mae’r balans rhwng y micro (diffyg sylw i rai ardaloedd) a’r macro (sylw cytbwys i’r sir i gyd) yn anodd iawn i gyflawni. Mae politics darniog ddim am neud y job yn haws.

Grave Matters

2009-02-27T08:58:00.000-08:00

‘Do not be ruled from beyond the grave’
The quote is from Tom Paine (1737 – 1809) author of ‘Rights of Man’ . His writings on an individual’s human rights in society annoyed the government of the day driving them into an incandescent rage. Such was their irrational hate of his work that they tried to arrest him as a traitor.
‘Do not be ruled from beyond the grave’ was a reference to some laws, customs and strictures, no longer appropriate, in society at that time (and still today) were passed and laid down by rulers, long since dead. These laws and customs, though inappropriate still held sway.
In Gwynedd and other Councils however, we now seem to be subject to rules and restrictions from above the grave. Our old friend Health and Safety has made numerous visits to several cemeteries in the area, festooning them with coloured tape, wooden stakes, laid down memorials and notices warning the general public of how dangerous a place a graveyard can be.
Previously, in my work as a Managing Director, I was responsible for the Health and Safety of about 30 staff together with clients and visitors at the factory/workshop. H & S comes down basically to an assessment of risk, how do you reduce that risk and are there other alternatives to avoid that particular risk. We all take an H & S assessment when crossing a busy road, looking both right & left and noting traffic density and any other relevant factors. An H & S for crossing an open field would be different, looking down instead of both ways, in case you put your foot in it.
So, how risky are our visits to these cemeteries? From Parliamentary Questions (the references are 140507,140535, and 140508) asked by John Mann MP, these can be summarized as follows:-
Question:- How many graveyards were inspected by the Health & Safety Executive in 2006. Answer:- No serious incidents reported, so none inspected.
Question:- How many incidents of falling gravestones in the last 20 years? Answer:- Reliable data for the period requested not available. However data shows that 21 serious accidents have occurred by falling gravestones and memorials over a period of 7 years.
Let’s see if we can make something of these statistics. H & S Executive covers the whole of the UK – about 60 million people. How many people visit UK cemeteries in a year? This includes those who work there, visit a grave or attend a funeral. Some visit several times a year, such as those who have recently lost a loved one, or monumental masons, and maintenance teams. My estimate (guesstimate) that all the above groups, workers, frequent visitors and the once only throughout UK amount to about 10 million visits in a year. So over a period of 7 years – about 70 million visits with 21 serious accidents. This gives about a 3.5 million to 1 chance of a serious accident if you plan a visit to your local graveyard.
The response of the Councils to this risk has to a large extent been inappropriate and in some instances downright in-accurate. The use of the ‘topple tester’ in particular has caused a lot of controversy.
Back to Parliamentary Questions/Answers :- ‘ …. The Justice Minister has written to local authorities urging a proportionate response to the question of memorial safety. Councils need to balance the (often slight) risk of injury against the certainty of distress if memorials were laid down.’
The Ministry of Justice – which the Health and Safety Executive comes under, has recently issued a paper on ‘Managing the safety of Burial Ground Memorials’. In the document it urges restraint on testing for safety and suggests that simple visual inspections are perfectly adequate in most cases. This should bring an end to the ‘topple test’ and strapping rows of memorials with wooden stakes.
Let’s hope that these messages get home to the Cemetery Authorities so that we can see the last of the unsightly plastic tapes and wooden stakes.
‘Peidiwch â chael eich rheoli o du hwnt i’r bedd’
Mae’r dywediad yma gan Tom Paine (1737 – 1809) awdur ‘Rights of Man’. ‘Roedd ei lyfrau ar hawliau dynol yn y gymdeithas wedi cynddeiriogi llywodraeth y dydd. Cymaint ‘roedd atgasedd y Senedd tuag at Paine bu ymgyrch ganddynt i garcharu o am fod yn fradwr.
Mae ‘Do not be ruled from beyond the grave’ yn gyfeiriad tuag at rhai ddeddfau a rheolau, sydd erbyn hyn ddim yn berthnasol mewn cymdeithas ac wedi eu llunio gan reolwyr o’r hen oes.
Yma yng Ngwynedd fel Cynghorau eraill, ‘rydym dan reolau a rhwystrau uwchben y bedd. Mae’r hen gyfaill Iechyd a Diogelwch wedi bod yn ymweld yn gyson a nifer o fynwentydd yn yr ardal. Mae o’n gadael ar ei ôl, tapiau coch a gwyn, stanciau pren, gerrig beddau’n fflat ar lawr a rhybuddion yn deud wrth y cyhoedd pa mor beryglus yw’r mynwentydd.
Pa mor beryglus yw mynd i’r mynwentydd yma? O’r Cwestiynau Senedd (cyf. 140507, 140535, 140,508) gofynnwyd gan John Mann AS. Talfyriad o rain yw:-
Cwestiwn:- Faint o fynwentydd archwiliwyd gan Adran Weithredol Iechyd a Diogelwch yn 2006. Ateb:- Dim adroddiad o ddamwain difrifol, felly dim archwiliad o unrhyw fynwent.
Cwestiwn:- Faint o achlysuron o gerrig beddau’n syrthio yn ystod 20 mlynedd diwethaf? Ateb:- Nid oes data dibynadwy ar y cyfnod yma. Serch hynny mae’r data yn dangos 21 damwain difrifol oherwydd cerrig beddau’n syrthio dros gyfnod o 7 mlynedd.
Oes ‘na wers yn yr ystadegau hyn? Mae’r Adran I & D yn gweithredu drwy Brydain Fawr, poblogaeth o thua 60 miliwn. Faint o bobl sy’n ymweld â mynwentydd yn UK mewn blwyddyn? Yn y ffigwr yma bydd angen cynnwys y rhai sy’n gweithio yna, ymweld â bedd neu fynychu angladd. Mae rhai ohonom yn ymweld nifer o weithiau mewn blwyddyn,er engraifft pobl sydd wedi colli perthynas neu ffrind, neu seiri maen a gweithwyr chynnal a chadw’r mynwentydd. ‘Rwyf yn amcangyfrif (tybio) bod y grwpiau uchod yn golygu bod tua 10 miliwn o ymweliadau i fynwentydd y flwyddyn trwy’r UK. Dros 7 mlynedd - tua 70 miliwn o ymweliadau gyda 21 o ddamweiniau difrifol. Mae hyn yn gyfystyr i 1 siawns mewn 3.5 miliwn o ymweliadau i’r fynwent os ‘rydych am fentro trwy’r giât.
Mae ymateb y Cynghorau i’r risg yma wedi bod i raddau helaeth yn amhriodol ac weithiau’n anghywir. Mae defnydd y ‘topple tester’ yn enwedig wedi bod yn ddadleuol iawn.
Yn ôl i Gwestiynau/Atebion Senedd ‘........ mae Gweinidog Cyfiawnder wedi ysgrifennu i’r Awdurdodau Lleol yn annog ymateb rhesymol i’r cwestiwn o ddiogelwch beddfeini. Mae angen i Gynghorau pwyso a mesur y risg bach o niwed yn erbyn y sicrwydd o drallod os yw gerrig beddau’n cael eu gollwng i lawr.’
Mae’r Weinyddiaeth Cyfiawnder sy’n goruchwylio’r Adran Iechyd a Diogelwch wedi cyhoeddi papur yn ddiweddar ar ‘Managing the safety of Burial Ground Memorials’. Yn y ddogfen mae’n annog ataliad ar brofion ar gyfer diogelwch ac yn argymell bod archwiliad gweledol yn ddigonol mewn rhan fwyaf o’r achosion. Delir hyn ddod i derfyn y ‘topple test’ a rhwymo rhesi o gerrig beddau a stanciau pren.
Gobeithio bod y negeseuon swyddogol yma’n cyrraedd yr Awdurdodau Mynwentydd be y bu'r tapiau plastic a’r stanciau pren yn diflannu o’r mynwentydd.

Euro pounds the Pound

2009-01-24T04:09:00.000-08:00

Euro pounds the Pound

When Sterling (the pound) was riding high amongst world currencies the exhilaration of holidays abroad, especially in countries with a weak
currency was ‘happy days’. Recently however, with the pound plunging against the Euro it seems that some serious monetary consequences will be visiting us.
Will this make any difference to us living in Gwynedd? I think it will affect us in 3 ways. Firstly, holidays abroad will definitely be dearer in the Eurozone, with €1 = 67p sometime last year we’ve seen rates as low as €1 = £1 recently, that’s a 33% devaluation.
UK is a big importer of finished goods, particularly from the EC. Watch some of these import prices taking off in the near future. The recession however will to some extent damp down this process.
The third effect will depend on 2 factors, the depth of the recession and the weather. If the weather this Summer is good, it will benefit the tourist trade along the North Wales coast, particularly Gwynedd. Fewer families will head off to the Costas due to devaluation and the recession, and provided they can still afford some sort of break, we here should see some benefit.
Is there a better way out there? This year we’re ‘celebrating’ the 10th anniversary of the Euro. When it was first launched it was derided by some as a ‘toilet currency’. I’d venture to suggest that our currency, the Pound, is closer to the pan than the Euro nowadays. I was surprised to hear William Hague a Tory shadow front bench spokesman say that if the Conservatives won the next election they would never take us into the Eurozone. NEVER is a very big five letter word in politics.
With the American Dollar and the Euro beginning to dominate the world currency markets, isn’t it time we thought of joining the Euro? If we as a country want to take a realistic part in international economic and financial re-structuring, we’ll have to ditch Sterling and adopt the Euro. That is unless we want to stand outside the European financial counting houses waving our Pounds in the vain hope that someone in there will listen. In the end, I predict that we will reluctantly join, having had the unpleasant experience of Sterling, which is not a reserve currency, being buffeted about on the stormy seas of the world’s currency markets.
PS. In one of my recent blogs (if you scroll down it’s still there) :- WHAT WILL SWITCH ON THE LIGHTS? I predicted that Wylfa 2 was on the cards. This is now going to happen, together with about 10,000 jobs.
I also flagged up some serious doubts about wind generation. On the coldest day of this year so far, UK power stations were generating some 58,000 MW of electricity. Wind was contributing less than 100MW (.2%) to this demand. Wind farms have an installed capacity of 1,300MW yet the actual generation (100MW) was only 8% of capacity. Wind generation has a long way to go to make a significant difference.

Euro’n pwnio’r Bunt
Pan ‘roedd y Bunt ar frig y don ymysg arian y byd, ‘roedd gwyliau dramor, yn enwedig i wledydd gyda chyfradd newid gwan yn erbyn y Bunt yn wyliau dedwydd. Yn ddiweddar, gyda’r Bunt yn suddo yn erbyn yr Euro mae ‘na chanlyniadau digon difrifol yn gwynebu ni.
Sut bydd y sefyllfa yma’n effeithio arnom ni yng Ngwynedd? ‘Rwyf yn credu y bydd o mewn 3 ffordd. Yn gyntaf, bydd gwyliau tramor yn ddrytach yn ardal yr Euro, am gyfnod yn 2008 ‘roedd €1 = 67c ond yn ddiweddar ‘roedd mor isel a €1 = £1, gostyngiad o 33% yn ei werth.
Mae’r UK yn fewnforiwr sylweddol o nwyddau, yn enwedig o’r EC. Bydd gost rhai o’r nwyddau yma am godi’n sylweddol, ond bydd y dirwasgiad byd eang yn lleihau rhywfaint ar y broses yma.
Bydd y 3ydd effaith yn ddibynnol ar 2 ffactor, maint y dirwasgiad a’r tywydd. Os yw’r Haf yma am fod yn dda, bydd y diwydiant twristiaeth yn Ogledd Cymru’n elwa, yn arbennig yng Ngwynedd. Bydd llai o deuluoedd yn hedfan i’r Costas oherwydd gwerth y Bunt a’r dirwasgiad, ac os fedran nhw dal fforddio gwyliau, delir yr ardal yma cael rhywfaint o fudd allan o’r newid yma.
Oes ffordd arall allan o’n trafferthion? Blwyddyn yma ‘rydym yn ‘dathlu’ 10 mlynedd o’r Euro. Degawd yn ôl ‘roedd rhai economegwyr yn galw’r Euro yn ‘arian tŷ bach’, ‘rwyf yn tybio bod y Bunt yn nes at y toilet heddiw na’r Euro. Rhyfedd oedd clywed William Hague y Ceidwadwr amlwg yn deud yn ddiweddar os enillir nhw’r etholiad tro nesa’, bydd y Torïaid byth yn mynd a’r UK i mewn i’r Euro. Mae BYTH yn air mawr iawn yn y byd politicaidd.
Gyda’r US Dollar a’r Euro yn dechrau tra-arglwyddiaethu’r marchnadoedd arian, ydi hi’n amser ymuno a’r Euro? Os ‘rydym fel gwlad am gymryd rhan realistig yn ail gynllunio pensaernïol arian y byd bydd rhaid cael gwared â Sterling ac ymuno a’r Euro. Yn y diwedd, ‘rwyf yn rhagweld byddem yn ymuno’n anfodlon, ar ôl cael profiadau annymunol ar y moroedd tymhestlog y marchnadoedd arian.

2008-12-20T13:11:00.000-08:00

On Message?

As one Royal Occasion, Prince Charles’ 60th Birthday last month fades into the past, another occasion swims into view. That of the Queen’s Christmas Day speech.
When I was a child, my mother insisted that our family sit in front of the TV at 3 o’clock, Christmas Day to listen to the Queen. Even as teenagers, my brother and I were expected to attend this televisual gathering. In those days, it was a common occurrence throughout Great Britain, and even deemed ‘unpatriotic’ not to assemble in front of a radio or TV for this annual occasion. The Christmas Day speech used to be broadcast live up until 1960, when they were thereafter pre recorded.
A glance at the viewing figures over the 14 years (1992 – 2006) shows a dramatic decline from 17.9 million to 8.5 million. I don’t think this is a surprise to even the most ardent Royal watcher. The younger generation, my children for instance, take a more iconoclastic view of the Royals and hardly if ever listen to the Queen’s Christmas Day speech. When the present Queen ‘retires’ will the future King drum up more viewers?
Another change in the Royal repertoire will be the National Anthem
‘God save the Queen to ‘God save the King’. Will it be time to call for a change and commission a new anthem?
The present anthem is, according to my researches, virtually unique amongst the 192 national anthems in the world, apart from Brunei where the anthem is ‘God bless his Majesty’ referring to the Sultan of Brunei. All the other anthems have a similar content to the Welsh National anthem, referring to the land, mountains, rivers people and ancestors. No other anthems refer to either living monarchs or rulers.
How did ‘God save the Queen’ come about? It originated in a patriotic song first performed in 1745. It became known as the National Anthem at the beginning of the 19th Century. It has never been officially adopted as the British National anthem, either by Act of Parliament or Royal proclamation. Although, usually, only the 1st verse is sung there are in fact 6 verses. The 6th could hardly be sung nowadays, even by the Prime Minister in a fit of incandescent rage against the Scottish National Party.
Verse 6
Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the Queen!
So when the Queen finally takes leave of her office, would it not be a magnanimous gesture by the future King to banish the present National anthem, and instigate a competition to find a more suitable anthem for a less obsequious nation?

Beth yw’r neges?
Fel mae un achos brenhinol, sef pen-blwydd Tywysog Charles, mis Tachwedd, yn llithro heibio. gweler achos arall yn nesáu, araith y Frenhines ar ddiwrnod Nadolig.
Pan ‘roeddwn yn blentyn, roedd mam yn mynnu ein bod, fel teulu yn eistedd o flaen y teledu am 3-00 y prynhawn i wylio'r Frenhines. Hyd yn oed pan ‘roedd fy mrawd a minnau yn ein harddegau ‘roedd y disgwyl i wrando a gwylio dal yna. Yr adeg yna ‘roedd hi’n arferol hyd a lled Prydain i wylio’r araith a hyd yn oed yn cael ei ystyried yn anwlatgar peidio.
Mae’r nifer sy’n gwylio dros gyfnod o 14 mlynedd (1992 – 2006) yn dangos newid sylweddol o 17.9 miliwn i 8.5 miliwn. Mae’r genhedlaeth ifanc yn llawer llai tebygol o wrando ar araith y Frenhines. Pan fydd y Frenhines yn ‘ymddeol’ bydd y Brenin newydd yn medru cynyddu’r gwrandawyr?
Newid arall yn y drefn bydd yr anthem genedlaethol. ‘God save the Queen’ i ‘God save the King’. Tybed bydd hi’n amser newid a chael anthem newydd? Mae’r anthem bresennol, hyd y gwn i, bron yn unigryw. Dim ond Brunei sydd a ‘God bless his Majesty’. Mae bron bob anthem arall yn cyfeirio at y wlad, eu pobol, ac weithiau ei mynyddoedd, môr neu afonydd. Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau yn debyg iawn i nifer ohonynt.
Sut ddaeth ‘God Save the King’ i rym? Dechreuodd fel gân wladgarol tua 1745. Erbyn dechrau’r bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg ‘roedd yn cael ei adnabod fel anthem genedlaethol. Nid yw erioed wedi cael ei fabwysiadu yn swyddogol fel anthem genedlaethol Brydeinig. Fel arfer dim ond y pennill 1af sy’n cael ei ganu, y faith yw mai 6 pennill ar gael. Ni fedr canu’r 6ed, hyd yn oed gan Gordon Brown y Prif Weinidog wrth felltithio Plaid Genedlaethol yr Alban.
Pennill 6
Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the Queen!Felly, pan fydd y Frenhines yn gadael ei swydd, delir y Brenin newydd ddechrau gydag awgrym cael gwared â ‘God save the King’ a chael cystadleuaeth am anthem newydd mwy addas i Brydain Fawr?

Go to Jail ...

2008-11-19T03:12:00.000-08:00

Go to Jail.....

At the beginning of November, the Board of Cyngor Gwynedd decided to support the inclusion of the Ferodo site as a possible location for a new Jail here in North Wales.
Reading the Council report which carried the recommendation, there appeared very little in the way of either statistical evidence nor an in-depth evaluation of the pros and cons of such a development.
What in the report is in favour of this new jail? Briefly the points are as follows:-
Development of Caernarfon as a legal and justice centre – substantial economic benefits.
The presence of the University and Ysbyty Gwynedd. The use of nearby resources.
The Welsh language. An opportunity to develop a bi-lingual prison administration and support through the medium of Welsh to the area’s prisoners.
Economic situation and local employment.
Access and public transport
The site is currently brown field land and building a prison would lead to the site’s regeneration.
If one was evaluating this report in the form of a Business Plan or proposal, the interested parties would be homing in on the USP’s (Unique Selling Points).
With the possible exception of one point, all the rest are not unique but could equally be applied to various towns in North Wales. Close to a university, hospital, public transport etc.
The possible exception is point 3 – the Welsh language. Is it likely that the mandarins in the Home Office, Whitehall, (who run the prison service) will be bowled over by this argument? I suspect that a bi-lingual prison service in Caernarfon will not be a high scorer in the list of their priorities for a new prison.
How many prisoners will there be? The prison is needed for 400 – 500 prisoners. According to Gwynedd’s report there were in July 2008 approximately 800 adults in prison from North Wales. Of these 120 came from Gwynedd (about 95 men, 25 women). It doesn’t take much maths to work out that there would be a lot of empty places in the prison if we depended solely on local law breakers.
Here’s the nub of the issue. With possibly as many as 350 – 400 ‘spare beds’ in the prison, the bed fillers could be from well outside the locality. My enquiries revealed that there is a tendency for some families to move into the area of a prison if the ‘breadwinner’ is serving a prison sentence. It’s not uncommon for these families to rely heavily on Social Services and other local and national government bodies.
Unfortunately, due to the number of offenders currently in prison in Great Britain, one aspect of prison – re-education and preparation for life outside prison has to an extent received the back burner treatment. Some would argue that on re-entering society some ex-convicts have been ‘re-educated’ so that they can now practice their unlawful trades to much better effect.
So what does the Home Office say about rates of re-offending? From their website the 2000 – 2005 frequency rate of re-offending fell from 189.9 to 167.9 re-offences per 100 offenders. Not a statistic to bring gladness to the hearts of the law-abiding citizens.
In what was supposed to be a balanced report from Cyngor Gwynedd, none of the above points were mentioned. Is it a case of ‘ Be careful in case of what you wish for comes true?’
Mynd i’r Carchar
Ar ddechrau Tachwedd, cymerodd Bwrdd Cyngor Gwynedd y penderfyniad i gefnogi cynnwys safle Ferodo, Caernarfon fel lleoliad posib ar gyfer carchar yng Ngogledd Cymru. Yn yr adroddiad nid oedd llawer o ystadegau na werthusiad o’r datblygiad arfaethedig yma.
Mae’r adroddiad ar we’r Cyngor, ond yn fras, o blaid y prosiect oedd:-
Datblygiad Caernarfon fel canolfan cyfreithiol - lles i’r economi
Lleoliad parod y Brifysgol a’r Ysbyty - adnoddau
Yr Iaith Gymraeg. Cyfle i ddatblygu gweinyddiaeth ddwyieithog, cefnogaeth i garcharorion trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg.
Sefyllfa economaidd a chyflogaeth leol.
Mynediad i drafnidiaeth gyhoeddus.
Mae’r safle’n bresennol yn ‘brown field’ bydd adeiladu carchar yn adfywio’r safle.
Os ydym ni'n edrych ar yr adroddiad yma fel Cynllun Busnes, ble mae’r USP’s? (Unique Selling Points)
Eithrio efallai un pwynt, nid yw’r gweddill yn unigryw, maent yn berthnasol i nifer o drefi yng Ngoledd Cymru. Fel agos at Ysbyty, prifysgol, trafnidiaeth etc.
Yr eithriad, yr Iaith Gymraeg, ond faint o sylw bydd Whitehall yn rhoi i bolisi dwyieithog i garchar yng Ngogledd Cymru?
Faint o garcharorion fydd ‘na? Mae angen garchar ar gyfer 400 - 500. Yn adroddiad Gwynedd adroddwyd bod tua 800 yn y carchar o Ogledd Cymru- Gorffennaf 2008., 120 ohonynt o Wynedd. Mae’n amlwg bydd ‘na nifer o lefydd gwag yng ngharchar Ferodo os ddibynnir ar ddrwgweithredwyr lleol.
Dyma wraidd y broblem. Gyda chymaint â 350 - 400 llefydd gwag yn y carchar, mae’r llefydd gwag yma’n cael eu llenwi gan bobl o du allan i’r ardal. Mae ‘na thueddiad i rai teuluoedd, pan mae ‘gwr y ty’ yn y carchar, symud i ardal y carchar. Yn aml iawn mae angen gofal dwys i’r teuluoedd yma gan Wasanaethau Cymdeithasol ac asiantaethau eraill.
Yn anffodus, gan fod carchardai ym Mhrydain mor llawn, mae addysg a pharatoi’r carcharorion ar gyfer bywyd tu allan ddim yn cael blaenoriaeth deilwng. Mae rhai yn dadlau bod ‘ail addysg’ yn y carchar yn neud nhw’n ddrwgweithredwyr gwaeth ar ôl dod allan.
Beth am ystadegau’r Swyddfa Gartref am ail-droseddu? O’r wefan mae amlder ail droseddu yn 167.9 ail-droseddu ar gyfer bob 100 o droseddwyr. Dim yn statistic sydd am lonni calonnau'r rhai sy’n byw yn yr ardal. Nid oedd ‘run o’r pwyntiau uchod wedi eu crybwyll yn adroddiad Cyngor Gwynedd. Ydi carchar yn Ferodo yn:- Byddwch yn ofalus am be ‘rydych yn gobeithio rhag ofn iddo droi’n wir.?

'I hear you knocking...'

2008-10-03T03:05:00.000-07:00

‘I hear you knocking...’
It was Benjamin Franklin who said ‘In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes’. Even for 3rd generation welfare dependents cashing in their Giro cheques, there’s still VAT and Council Tax to pay. Some of us may think that death is optional, given the advances in medical science. But no, every one of us will experience the swish of the scythe from the Grim Reaper. Will the final cut be at the time of our own choosing or are we subject to the vagaries of the throw of the dice by the Reaper as to when our number’s up?
During my time on Cyngor Gwynedd we regularly had workshops on various topics. About 2 years ago we had one from Social Services on planning for 2020 and beyond. The County of Gwynedd, in common with the North Wales coast has a high proportion of the elderly living here. This coastline is often called ‘Costa Geriatrica’ due to the fact that it receives a large number of elderly retirees. Statistics show that the majority of us cost the NHS more during the last 3 years of our lives than at any other period. Similarly Gwynedd Social Services will be asking for more and more money from the Council budget to care for the increased number of the elderly.
For the workshop, Councillors and officers were divided into groups of 4 and told to think of radical solutions for 2020, ‘think outside the box’. In my experience, this invitation can result in unexpected suggestions. Our group of 4 proposed that Social Services should run ‘Courses in Voluntary Euthanasia’ . As expected, this was not given a wholehearted welcome by the senior policy wonks in the workshop.
As things stand in Britain, the situation is confused between law and ethics. The ‘right’ for the terminally ill to sign themselves off can land them or their relatives/partners in trouble with the law. We’ve read about several examples recently of individuals having to go to Switzerland to arrange their own death with dignity.
As medicine gets more sophisticated and expensive, it can keep us alive longer, but at what cost to quality of life? As the century unwinds, the demographic curve will show more geriatrics as a proportion of the population, with fewer tax payers having to support them. The government can try and persuade their senior citizens to take more exercise, eat healthier food and not smoke. There is however a limit to these benefits. I can’t envisage any government handing the old folks the equivalent of a pistol and bottle of whiskey, but will there be a re-appraisal of long-term care?
With the possibility of several of us spending our final years in hospital or care home, incontinent , addle-headed and crawling our way through death’s door, will there be a choice? Will we play a waiting game with the grim reaper or make provision to invite him in?
‘Pwy sy’na.......’
Dywedodd Benjamin Franklin ’D’oes dim yn y byd yn sicr ond marw a threthi’ Mae hyd yn oed derbynwyr taliadau lles yn gorfod talu TAW a Threth Cyngor. Efallai bod rhai ohonom yn meddwl bod peidio marw yn opsiwn gyda gwelliannau mewn meddyginiaethau, ond na mae’r Crymanwr Difrifol yn sicr o alw heibio. Ydi’r toriad olaf am fod dan reolaeth ni neu hap a damwain fydd hi?
Yn ystod fy amser ar Gyngor Gwynedd, ‘roedd cyfleoedd i gymryd rhan mewn gweithgorau ar wahanol bynciau. Tua dwy flynedd yn ôl bu Gwasanaethau Cymdeithasol yn cynnal un ar gynllunio ar gyfer 2020 a thu hwnt. Mae gan Gwynedd, fel nifer o gynghorau eraill ar hyd arfordir Gogledd Cymru canran uchel o bobl mewn oed yn byw yma. Gelwir yr arfordir yn ‘Costa Geriatrica’ yn aml, oherwydd y nifer fawr o henoed sy’n dod yma i ymddeol. Mae ystadegau’n dangos bod mwyafrif ohonom yn costio mwy i’r NHS yn y 3 mlynedd olaf o’n bywyd nag yn unrhyw gyfnod arall. Felly bydd Gwasanaethau Cymdeithasol Cyngor Gwynedd yn gofyn am fwy a mwy o bres o’r pot canolog i edrych ar ôl yr henoed.
Ar gyfer y gweithgor rhannwyd y Cynghorwyr a’r swyddogion i grwpiau o 4 gyda’r cyfarwyddyd i feddwl am atebion radical ar gyfer 2020. Meddwl tu allan i’r bocs. Bu grŵp ni’n awgrymu ‘Cyrsiau ar ewthanasia gwirfoddol’ - nid oedd hwn at ddant swyddogion polisi’r adran Gwasanaethau Cymdeithasol.
Fel mae pethau’n sefyll ym Mhrydain, mae’r sefyllfa’n ddryslyd rhwng y gyfraith a moeseg. Mae ‘hawl’ i’r claf tynnu’r plwg arno’i hun yn medru achosi trafferth gyfreithiol i’w deulu/partner. Mae nifer o achosion yn y papurau newydd yn ddiweddar yn son am unigolion yn mynd i’r Swistir i drefnu diwedd urddasol i’w bywyd.
Fel mae triniaeth meddygol yn gwella ac yn mynd y fwy costus, mae o’n cadw ni’n fyw am hirach, ond ar ba gost i ansawdd byw? Fel mae’r ganrif yma’n ymlwybro ymlaen, mae’r demograffics yn dangos fwyfwy o henoed fel canran o’r boblogaeth, gyda llai a llai o drethdalwyr yn eu cynnal nhw.Bydd y llywodraeth yn perswadio’n henoed i gymryd fwy o ymarfer corff, bwyta’n iach a pheidio ysmygu. Ond, mae’na ben draw i’r gwelliannau yma. Ni fedraf weld y llywodraeth yn awgrymu potel o chwisgi a gwn i’r henoed, ond yn debygol bydd ail-edrych ar ofal tymor hir.
Gyda’r posibilrwydd o fwy a mwy ohonom yn gwario ein blynyddoedd olaf mewn ysbyty neu gartref henoed, yn baeddu ac yn gwlychu, yn ddryslyd yn ymlusgo tuag at ddrws angau, bydd y dewis ar gael? Be fydd hi? Chwarae gem aros gyda’r Crymanwr Difrifol, neu alw ef i mewn?

WHAT WILL SWITCH ON THE LIGHTS?

2008-08-24T04:12:00.001-07:00

How many of you reading this blog have been on holiday, worked or travelled through France? That’s quite a few, you can put your hands down now. How many of you, when in France gave a thought as to how dangerous a place it was with nuclear power stations dotted about the country? Very few if any I guess. France has 59 nuclear power stations and generates about 80% of its electricity from these sources. A percentage of this power is sold on via undersea cable to Great Britain.
Here in Britain we generate about 18% of our electricity from nuclear power. Yet as recently as 2003 a Government report ranked development of nuclear power a very poor contender for future generation of electricity in Britain. Today, this ‘poor’ option has leapfrogged to the front of the queue according to present Government thinking.
Why such a change of heart? One reason, it’s geopolitical, Putin in Russia has shown himself more than ready to place his hand on the off switch of the gas/oil taps from their vast natural energy resources. North Sea oil and gas are depleting at an alarming rate, and we are becoming more dependent on imports. Does any British Government want to be caught with the lights out by the electorate?
What’s the alternative? The wind power lobby has been given a lot of publicity recently, arguing that it can supply approximately 10% or more of our electricity. A lot of facts and figures have been bandied about by pro and anti wind power factions, some I suspect are fantasy facts. So how does one assess the future contribution of wind energy? Wind farms are not power stations, by their very nature they’re intermittent power sources. Consequently the National Grid will have to keep in place a ‘spinning reserve’, that is keep traditional power stations – of whatever other energy source, ticking over in case there’s no wind. Claims that wind power can supply over a million households with electricity when they’re going full tilt are difficult to realistically quantify. A fact easier to understand is that the total generating capacity of the wind farms around Carno and Llandinam – Mid Wales, for a whole year is equivalent to 4 days generating capacity for a normal power station. Those mid Wales wind farms cover several thousand acres. It doesn’t take a maths degree to work out how much countryside we’d have left in Britain, never mind in Wales if we were to rely heavily on wind generated electricity. There are over 2000 power stations in Britain, some very small, with some 80 – 90 large ones. So what about wind farms in the sea? These are inordinately expensive to erect and maintain in such a harsh environment. Can wind energy be more than a peripheral source of electricity?
Another low carbon footprint form of generating electricity is a tidal barrage, similar to the one proposed for the Severn. I remember, when studying Physics in University visiting the tidal barrage scheme on the Rance river in France. I had suspicions then that the venture was not coming up to expectations. No country has copied this scheme since. My guess is that it’s very difficult economically, to generate electricity via a large body of relatively slow moving water, as in a barrage scheme.
So, what viable low carbon footprint generating source is available? If nuclear power is the main option, there’s no doubt that Friends of the Earth and like minded fellow travellers will vociferously object to this option. Their argument is essentially a circular one, in that the generating by-products are dangerous and one shouldn’t store them unless a safe method can be found. No safe method can be found, therefore don’t generate electricity with nuclear power. The Government in Westminster, with its eye on France forging ahead along the nuclear route, will have to ask itself how far behind do we want to be? Is it naive to ask the question. If the ancient Egyptians were able to build pyramids over 4000 years ago to ‘store’ their contents, is not 21st Century technology capable of an equivalent storage exercise, or the re-use of the by-products of nuclear waste?
What of North Wales in this energy debate? In a recent article in ‘The Independent’ it was reported that EdF (the French Government owned generator) already owns land next to Wylfa Power station , Ynys Mon. EdF is likely to be a favourite to construct at least 4 new nuclear stations here in Britain. The consensus is that there’s much less opposition to new nuclear plants built next door to existing ones. The local population is used to them and realises that they not only generate electricity but well paid jobs.
If a second Wylfa comes about, how many jobs will it generate during the construction period -10,000? Will they be ‘sucked in’ from outside with the local population having to do with the crumbs off the employment table? Will there be a comprehensive employment strategy by Gwynedd and Ynys Mon to ensure local well paid jobs? That’s a question we should be asking now.
BETH SYDD AM OLEUO’R TYWYLLWCH?
Faint ohonoch sy’n darllen hwn sydd wedi bod ar eich gwyliau, gweithio neu trafeilio trwy Ffrainc? Faint ohonoch ‘roedd yn poeni’n ddirfawr am y ffaith bod nifer o bwerdai niwclear wedi eu gwasgaru hyd a lled y wlad? Fawr neb ‘rwyf yn siŵr. Mae gan Ffrainc 59 o bwerdai niwclear sydd yn cynhyrchu o gwmpas 80% o drydan Ffrainc o’r gorsafoedd yma. Mae canran ychwanegol yn cael ei werthu i Brydain Fawr trwy wifren danfor.
Yma ym Mhrydain, ‘rydym yn cynhyrchu tua 18% o drydan o bwerdai niwclear. Serch hynny, mor ddiweddar â 2003, bu adroddiad y Llywodraeth yn ystyried pŵer niwclear yn gynhyrchydd gwael ar gyfer dyfodol trydanol y wlad. Ond heddiw, meddai’r Llywodraeth, mae’r opsiwn ‘gwael’ yma wedi brasgamu i flaen y rhestr.
Pam y newid mawr? Un rheswm yw’r sefyllfa boliticaidd/daearyddol. Mae Putin yn Rwsia, wedi dangos ei hun yn fwy na pharod i droi’r cyflenwad nwy i ffwrdd. Gyda nwy ac olew o Mor y Gogledd yn dirwyn i ben, mae angen mewnforio cyflenwadau sylweddol o’r ddau. Pa Lywodraeth sydd eisiau cael ei ddal allan gan yr etholwyr yn y tywyllwch?
Beth yw’r dewisiadau eraill? Mae ynni gwynt wedi cael llawer iawn o sylw yn ddiweddar ac yn dadlau bod y dechnoleg yma’n medru cyflenwi tua 10% neu fwy o’n trydan. Mae llawer wedi ei ysgrifennu o blaid ac yn erbyn ynni gwynt. Nid yw ffermydd gwynt yn orsafoedd bŵer, cyflenwad ysbeidiol wrth eu natur ydynt. Oherwydd hyn mae angen i’r National Grid cadw pwerdai traddodiadol ar ‘spinning reserve’ rhag ofn i’r gwynt beidio â chwythu. Mae honiadau bod y ffermydd gwynt yn medru cadw dros filiwn o dai mewn trydan yn anodd ei werthuso. Yn haws deall yw, mae oll gynnyrch trydanol am flwyddyn gyfan, y ffermydd gwynt yn ardal Carno a Llandinam - canolbarth Cymru yn gyfystyr a 4 diwrnod o gynnyrch orsaf bŵer traddodiadol. Mae’r ffermydd gwynt yma’n gorchuddio rhai miloedd o aceri yn y canolbarth. Nid oes angen gradd mewn mathemateg i sylweddoli faint o’r wlad fydd ar ôl os ‘rydym am ddibynnu’n sylweddol ar ynni gwynt. Opsiwn arall yw ffermydd gwynt yn y môr, ond mae'r rhain yn eithriadol o ddrud i’w codi a chynnal a chadw mewn amgylchedd mor eithafol. Mae angen gofyn y cwestiwn, a yw ynni gwynt dim ond am fod yn gynhyrchydd trydan ymylol?
Cynhyrchydd trydan ol-troed isel carbon arall yw’r argae llanw, ‘run fath a’r un sy’n cael ei argymell yn yr Hafren (Severn). Pan ‘roeddwn yn astudio Ffiseg yn y Brifysgol manteisiais ar y cyfle i ymweld ag argae llanw ar yr afon Rance yn Ffrainc. ‘Roeddwn yn amau ‘adeg yna, bod y fenter ddim yn dod i fyny at y gofynion. Nid oes unrhyw wlad wedi copïo’r cynllun yma. ‘Rwyf yn damcaniaethu bod cynhyrchu trydan yn economaidd yn anodd iawn allan o lawer o ddŵr sy’n symud yn ara’ deg, fel argae llanw.
Felly, pa gynhyrchydd trydanol ymarferol, ol-troed isel carbon sydd ar gael? Os yw pŵer niwclear yn brif opsiwn, nid oes amheuaeth y bydd Cyfeillion y Ddaear a’u tebyg am wrthwynebu’n frwd yr opsiwn yma. Cylchol yn ei hanfod yw eu dadl yn erbyn niwclear. Mae ysbwriel niwclear yn beryglus, ni ddelir ei storio tan ddarganfyddir ffordd ddiogel i’w neud. Nid oes ffordd ddiogel o storio, felly ni ddelir cynhyrchu ynni niwclear. Mae’r Llywodraeth yn San Steffan, sy’n gwylio Ffrainc yn rhuthro ymlaen ar y ffordd niwclear, am orfod gofyn y cwestiwn faint ar ôl Ffrainc fedrith Brydain fforddio bod? Ydi’n ddwl gofyn y cwestiwn, os oedd yr Eifftiaid yn oes Pharo yn medru codi puramud i ‘storio’ celfi, cyrff a.y.b., a yw technoleg 21C. yn medru neud yr un peth neu ail-ddefnyddio’r gwastraff niwclear?
Beth am Ogledd Cymru yn y ddadl ynni? Mewn erthygl ddiweddar yn yr Independent adroddwyd bod EdF (cynhyrchwr ynni, llywodraeth Ffrainc sy’n berchen hwn) sy’n barod yn dal tir wrth ymyl pwerdy Wylfa, Ynys Môn. Mae EdF yn debygol o fod ar y blaen i godi o leiaf 4 orsedd newydd niwclear yma ym Mhrydain. Y consensws yw bod llawer llai o wrthwynebiad i orsafoedd niwclear newydd drws nesa’ i rai presennol. Mae’r boblogaeth leol wedi arfer gyda nhw ac yn sylweddoli eu bod nid yn unig yn creu ynni ond nifer o swyddi ar gyflogau da.
Os yw’r ail Wylfa ar y gorwel, faint o swyddi bydd hyn yn golygu yn ystod y cyfnod adeiladu - 10,000? Bydd y swyddi yma’n mynd i bobl tu allan i’r ardal? Bydd y gymuned leol dim ond yn cael y briwsion? Bydd angen strategaeth gwaith lleol cynhwysfawr gan Wynedd ac Ynys Môn i sicrhau swyddi. Mae angen gofyn y cwestiynau yma’n awr.

Too Much, Too Soon

2008-07-26T05:35:00.000-07:00

If you take too much medicine in one go, it can have unfortunate consequences. Similarly if the elected representatives of our community decide to give the electorate a strong dose of what they assume is ‘reality medicine’, don’t be surprised if the voter takes one swig of the proposed ‘cure’ and then spits it out. This is what happened with Cyngor Gwynedd’s re-organisation of primary schools draft document.
The consultation process began over 2 years ago. It resulted in a series of 50 meetings held throughout Gwynedd. Each school was placed into a catchment area – roughly the area that was served by the secondary school. The proposal for each catchment area was a confusing combination, the Junior Schools were offered federalization, clustering, or stand alone status. Despite frequent enquiries from those at the meetings asking if these future reorganisations were a money saving exercise. The answer was always no – it had nothing to do with cutting costs. The consultation was based on a ‘you tell us what you want’ scenario. I got the impression that those attending these sessions went away apprehensive, but hopeful that a message of ’no change’ was the order of the day.
There was an undercurrent of unease prior to the publication of the draft document. I was aware of this as Chairman of Gwynedd (2006-07). Worried parents would ask me if their local school with possibly 60 pupils, was in danger of being shut. When the document was released, the browns hit the fan. Although couched as a ‘discussion document’ many surmised that the writing was on the wall for 29 schools destined for the axe. Those attending the 50 or so meetings felt that no regard whatsoever was placed on their opinions.
Who was responsible for this document? Involved were some of the senior portfolio leaders, senior officers, chief executive and leader of the Council. Why prescribe such a radical solution, especially within 6 months of an election? I believe that hubris played an important part in this, Plaid group had a large majority in Gwynedd. It was assumed that the document, with some effort, could be rail-roaded through Council, and that the electorate would be persuaded to follow suit. The officers wanted a long term solution so that they wouldn’t have to re-visit the Junior Schools strategy time and again to tinker and tweak it.
The reaction to the document, especially from those communities with small rural schools was a vociferous ‘you’ve not listened to us – it’s all to do with money’. The response was well orchestrated, efficiently organised and resulted in the formation of Llais Gwynedd. By way of contrast, the response from Gwynedd was to bang on with the same strategy in an un-coordinated and haphazard fashion, without developing the argument and letting the agenda slip out of their grasp. The result, Llais Gwynedd did better than the most realistic predictions in the Local Government Elections, and still retains the moral high ground.
With Plaid Cymru in Cyngor Gwynedd still reeling on the back foot, unused to the new politics of consensus, how will it react, what will its game plan be? If it wants to avoid further erosion of its influence in future elections, it must start telling the electorate what the situation is regarding retention of small rural schools – this policy will damage the middle size and larger Junior Schools in Gwynedd. A compromise will need to be found. Plaid Cymru having ruled with an overall majority since 1996, will have to get used to consensus politics, I suspect that they’ll be relying on support from Labour and the Lib-Dems. here.
If Llais Gwynedd is to elevate itself above a party merely in search of an argument on Junior Schools it will have to recognise that Cyngor Gwynedd runs 15 major services, education being one of these. How popular will closing an Old People’s Home be to save a small school? Remaining doggedly and steadfastly to an ‘No Junior Schools to Shut’ policy may result in a ‘too little too late’ strategy which can be more damaging than ‘too much too soon’.
In my next blog I’ll be referring to the possibility of the biggest social and economic upheaval of the decade for Gwynedd, together with its far reaching implications.
GORMOD AR Y TRO
Mae cymryd gormod o ffisig ar y tro yn achosi trafferthion anffodus. Yn yr un modd os yw cynrychiolwyr ein cymdeithas yn penderfynu rhoddi llwyaid cru o ffisig realaeth, peidiwch â synnu os yw’r etholwyr yn ei boeri o allan. Dyma be ddigwyddodd gyda dogfen drafft Cyngor Gwynedd ar ail-drefnu Ysgolion Cynradd.
Cychwynnodd y broses ymgynghori dros 2 flynedd yn ôl. Bu tua 50 o gyfarfodydd hyd a lled Gwynedd. Lleolir pob ysgol gynradd mewn dalgylch - ‘roedd yn cyd-fynd mwy na lai ac ardal a wasanaethir gan yr ysgol uwchradd. ‘Roedd yr awgrymiadau i bob ardal yn gymysgedd ddryslyd. Y cynnig i’r Ysgolion Cynradd oedd ffederaleiddio, clystyru, neu dim newid. Er gwaethaf y cwestiynau o’r llawr, bod hyn yn gynllun arbed pres, yr ateb bob tro oedd na - dim byd i ‘neud ag arbed arian.
Cyn cyhoeddi’r ddogfen drafft, ‘roedd nifer yn teimlo’n bryderus. ‘Roeddwn yn ymwybodol o hyn fel Cadeirydd Cyngor Gwynedd (2006-07). Yn aml gofynnwyd i fi, oedd ysgol gyda thua 60 o blant yn ddiogel? Pan gyhoeddwyd y ddogfen, achosodd ddaeargryn o wrthwynebiadau. Er mai ‘dogfen ymgynghorol’ oedd ar y clawr, bu nifer helaeth yn dehongli bod yr hoelion yn cael eu paratoi ar gyfer eirch 29 o ysgolion’ roedd ar y rhestr cau.
Pwy oedd yn gyfrifol am y ddogfen yma? Yn eu mysg, rhai o’r arweinyddion portffolio, uwch swyddogion, prif weithredwr ac arweinydd y Cyngor. Pam pennu ateb mor radical a phell gyrhaeddol, yn enwedig 6 mis cyn yr etholiad? ‘Rwyf yn credu bod or-hunan hyder wedi chwarae rhan bwysig yn y mater yma, ‘roedd gan grŵp y Blaid mwyafrif mawr yn y Cyngor. Tybiwyd y gallasai gwthio’r ddogfen trwy’r Cyngor llawn a bod modd perswadio’r etholwyr i’w dderbyn. ‘Roedd y swyddogion angen ateb tymor hir i’r broblem o lai o blant yn yr ysgolion cynradd yn hytrach na ail-edrych ar y sefyllfa o dro i dro i neud man newidiadau.
‘Roedd yr ymateb i’r ddogfen, yn enwedig yn yr ardaloedd gydag ysgolion a nifer fach o blant ynddynt yn haerllug. ‘Roedd y Cyngor ddim yn gwrando. Bu’r ymateb yn effeithiol, ac yn flaengar, ac yn cyfrannu i sefydlu Llais Gwynedd. Fel gwrthgyferbyniad ‘roedd ymateb Cyngor Gwynedd i’r haeriadau yn un ddigyswllt a gwasgaredig, nid oedd eu dadleuon yn cael eu datblygu, ac o herwydd hyn llithrodd yr agenda allan o’u gafael. Y canlyniad, bu Llais Gwynedd yn ennill mwy o seddau na’r rhagolygon mwyaf realistig ac yn dal ar yr ucheldir moesol
Ar ôl yr etholiad mis Mai, gyda grŵp Plaid Cymru yn y Cyngor, yn wynebu amgylchiadau newydd a dim wedi arfer a poletics consensws, be fydd yr ymateb? Os am osgoi dirywiad pellach yn ei ddylanwad i’r dyfodol mae angen cael neges glir allan i’r cyhoedd beth yw’r sefyllfa ynglŷn ag ysgolion bach gwledig. Mae polisi o ddim newid am effeithio ar ysgolion canolig ac ysgolion mawr. Bydd angen darganfod cyfaddawd. Mae grŵp Plaid Cymru wedi rheoli gyda mwyafrif ers 1996, bydd angen ‘nawr arfer poletics consensws. ‘Rwyf yn damcaniaethu y bydd angen cefnogaeth Llafur a’r Lib-Dems bydd grŵp y Blaid yn y dyfodol.
Os yw Llais Gwynedd am god’n uwch na pharti a’i unig bwrpas yw dadlau am hawliau ysgolion cynradd, bydd rhaid cydnabod bod gan Gyngor Gwynedd 15 o brif wasanaethau i’w redeg, gydag addysg yn un ohonynt. Pa mor boblogaidd bydd cau cartref Hen Bobl i arbed ysgol fach? Wrth lynu’n haearnaidd i ‘Dim ysgol gynradd i gau’ efallai ‘dim digon rhu hwyr’ budd y canlyniad. Mae hyn weithiau’n waeth na’ ‘gormod ar y tro’.
Yn y blog nesa’ byddaf yn cyfeirio tuag at y posibilrwydd o newidiadau mawr yng Ngwynedd.

Over a Thousand Sunsets

2008-05-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

OVER A THOUSAND SUNSETS
Over a thousand reasons and explanations have been flagged up, floated and furiously debated since the results of the Local Government elections on 1st May. Over a thousand sunsets will have occurred before we see these Council members weighed on the scales of democracy by the electorate.
In what has been the most radical election in years, 28 new members will have been elected to represent Gwynedd on the Council. That’s 37% of the Council are new members with between them, little or no experience of Local Government.
As I wrote in my previous blog, Llais Gwynedd shook the apathy out of the electorate. It’s interesting to put their results into perspective. In the Arfon area with 32 seats Llais Gwynedd won only 2. However one win was the toppling of the Colossus of Plaid Cymru – Dafydd Iwan, this may have profound implications both for Plaid and Cyngor Gwynedd.
Out of 20 seats in the Meirionnydd area, 3 fell to Llais Gwynedd. The most damage inflicted on Plaid Cymru was in the Dwyfor area. 7 seats for Llais Gwynedd, and amongst the casualties, the previous Leader of the Council, Richard Parry-Hughes.
What caused this electoral earthquake? The significant seismic event was without doubt, the radical proposal to re-organise the Junior Schools. This policy document reverberated through the electorate in general and caused unease amongst the voters. This unease developed further into a general antipathy towards the Council over various aspects of Local Government. Increased charges on Pay and Display, the Traffic Wardens, spreading their ‘goodwill message’ via parking tickets. The Unitary Development Plan, rate rises, and a general lack of vision from Cyngor Gwynedd.
This tidal wave of electoral antipathy has swept in some new Councillors into Gwynedd’s Council Chamber. As is customary, every candidate for election produces a pamphlet to distribute from door to door. What surprised me, when I was given some of these leaflets from other wards, Llais Gwynedd appeared to have no system in place to correct glaring mistakes or advice on these literary works. One example was:-
‘The voice of Gwynedd want to continue schooling of our primary schools’.
Another :- ‘Make sure the elderly is to have as much as possible knowledge of what is there for their needs, and looking after’.
Having served for 21 years (1987 – 2008) in Local Government, I believe that one of the major pre-requisites of a Councillor is to be able to speak and express oneself fluently in both Welsh and English, and be able to write correctly in either language.
The new Councillors will now face a mountain of reports, committee minutes and a veritable snowstorm of letters and e-mails. The ones with a flimsy grasp of the languages will find the going difficult. Will they all survive the 4 year term? Only time will tell. Next blog I’ll be looking at how the hurricane of the radical re-organisation of Junior Schools blew the solid majority Plaid Cymru had on Cyngor Gwynedd out of the Council Chamber.

MWY NA FIL MACHLUD HAUL
Mae ‘na dros fil o resymau ac esboniadau wedi eu hargymell, cynnig a thrafod ers canlyniadau’r etholiadau Llywodraeth Leol ar Mai 1af. Bydd yr haul wedi machlud dros 1,000 o weithiau cyn y gwelwn yr aelodau newydd yma’n cael eu pwyso a mesur ar glorian democratiaeth gan yr etholwyr.
Hwn oedd yr etholiad mwyaf radical ers nifer fawr o flynyddoedd, gyda 28 o aelodau newydd wedi eu hethol i gynrychioli Gwynedd ar y Cyngor. Mae hyn yn golygu 37% o’r Cyngor, a rhyngddynt fawr ddim o brofiad o Lywodraeth Leol.
Fel yr ysgrifennais yn y blog blaenorol, ysgydwodd Llais Gwynedd difaterwch allan o’r etholwyr. Mae’n ddiddorol gosod y canlyniadau yn eu cyd-destun. Yn ardal Arfon gyda 32 o seddi, enillodd Llais Gwynedd dim ond 2. Er hynny llwyddwyd i ddiorseddu Dafydd Iwan, Llywydd Plaid Cymru, mae’n debyg bydd canlyniadau pellgyrhaeddol i’r Blaid ac i Gyngor Gwynedd.
Allan o 20 sedd yn ardal Meirionnydd, cipiodd Llais Gwynedd 3. Bu’r difrod mwyaf i Blaid Cymru yn ardal Dwyfor. 7 sedd i Lais Gwynedd, ym mysg y colledion, cyn arweinydd Cyngor Gwynedd - Richard Parry-Hughes.
Beth achosodd y daeargryn etholiadol yma? Y digwyddiad a gynhyrfodd y dyfroedd, heb amheuaeth, oedd y ddogfen radical i ad-drefnu Ysgolion Cynradd. Bu’r ddogfen yma’n tanseinio trwy’r etholaeth yn gyffredinol ac yn achosi aflonyddwch ymysg yr etholwyr. Datblygwyd yr aflonyddwch yma yn adwaith negyddol yn erbyn y Cyngor ynglŷn â nifer o elfennau o Lywodraeth Leol. Costau ychwanegol gyda Thalu ac Arddangos, y Wardeniaid Traffic yn peledu eu ticedi yma a thraw. Y Cynllun Unedol, codiadau mewn trethi a diffyg gweledigaeth Cyngor Gwynedd.
Mae’r don o aflonyddwch yn erbyn Gwynedd wedi cario ambell i gymeriad i mewn i Siambr y Cyngor fel Cynghorydd. Fel rheol, mae bob ymgeisydd yn yr etholiad yn cynhyrchu taflen i ddosbarthu o ddrws i ddrws. Be ‘roedd yn peri syndod i fi, yn gweld pamffledi o rhai wardiau, ‘roedd gan Lais Gwynedd a rhai o’r lleill ddim trefn mewn bod i gywiro camgymeriadau amlwg na chyngor sut i drefnu’r llenyddiaeth. Un esiampl oedd:-
‘ Mae’n ymweld bod ...’ (ymddangos yw’r gair cywir)
Ar ôl 21 mlynedd yn Llywodraeth Leol (1987 - 2008), ‘rwyf yn credu mai un o ddoniau hanfodol i fod yn Gynghorydd yw medru mynegi barn yn gywir ac yn rhwydd ar lafar yn Gymraeg ac yn Saesneg. Hefyd y gallu i ysgrifennu’n gywir yn y ddwy iaith. Bydd y Cynghorwyr newydd yn wynebu mynydd o adroddiadau, cofnodion pwyllgorau a llond trol o lythyrau a e-bostiai. Bydd y rhai gyda gafael bregus o’r ieithoedd yn darganfod amser blin o’u blaenau. Bydd pawb yna mewn 4 mlynedd? Amser a ddengys. Yn y blog nesa byddaf yn edrych sut chwythodd y corwynt o ad-drefnu Ysgolion Cynradd mwyafrif cadarn Plaid Cymru ar Gyngor Gwynedd allan o’r Siambr.

All votes are not what they seem'

2008-04-28T02:40:00.001-07:00

Llais Gwynedd has rattled the cage of electoral complacency. Their campaign has had the effect of creating a significant number of elections in Local Government here in Gwynedd.
As I predicted previously, the Junior Schools issue has prodded a generally apathetic electorate into taking interest in local issues. Some sitting members of Cyngor Gwynedd have never had to fight an election. Getting a ‘free ticket’ every time can lead to complacency and an element of detachment from the day to day issues of local politics. This election has certainly shaken some of them out of a rather long hibernation. I was right, by the way, in forecasting that I would be amongst the Councillors fighting for re-election.
It’s interesting to make comparisons, in 2004:-
Arfon: 31 electoral areas, 19 contested (i.e. an election) 12 uncontested (i.e. sitting member gets a free ticket) (i.e. 61% of the areas contested)
Dwyfor:- 20 electoral areas, 10 contested (i.e. an election) 10 uncontested (i.e. sitting member gets a free ticket) (i.e. 50% of the areas contested)
Meirionnydd. : 20 electoral areas, 6 contested (i.e. an election) 14 uncontested (i.e. sitting member gets a free ticket) (i.e. 30% of the areas contested).
The above shows that Gwynedd in the election of 2004 had 35 elections in a total of 71 areas. i.e. 49% of the areas contested
This time in 2008:-
Arfon: 31 electoral areas, 23 contested (i.e. an election) 8 uncontested (i.e. sitting member gets a free ticket) (i.e. 74% of the areas contested)
Dwyfor:- 20 electoral areas, 18 contested (i.e. an election) 2 uncontested (i.e. sitting member gets a free ticket) (i.e. 90% of the areas contested)
Meirionnydd. : 20 electoral areas, 12 contested (i.e. an election) 8 uncontested (i.e. sitting member gets a free ticket) (i.e. 60% of the areas contested).
The above shows that Gwynedd in the election of 2008 has 53 elections in a total of 71 areas. i.e. 75% of the areas contested
This is a 25% increase on 2004 and to be welcomed.
An interesting part of any election is when we contestants have a discussion around the ballot box with the returning officer as to how we deal with unconventional voting practices. The rule was (still is?) that if one can reasonably deduce the intention of the voter, a vote for a particular candidate can be counted in their favour. I’ve seen instances where ticks have been used instead of crosses, the box has been shaded in, or the name underlined. Sometimes however the voter gets carried away and votes for both candidates (null and void). I recollect a time when ‘Duw a’n helpo ni’ was written across my name and that of my opponent. Another time, ‘ None of these f****rs’ was the response of one anonymous voter.
However you vote, or ‘express’ an opinion, remember to get out there and vote, it is important.

Mae Llais Gwynedd wedi ysgwyd y bocs difaterwch etholiadol. Mae eu hymgyrch wedi cael yr effaith o greu nifer o etholiadau lywodraeth leol yma yng Ngwynedd.
Fel ‘roeddwn yn rhagweld eisoes, mae’r pwnc o ad-drefnu Ysgolion Cynradd wedi sbarduno’r etholwyr i gymryd diddordeb mewn materion lleol. Mae rhai o Aelodau Cyngor Gwynedd ‘roed wedi ymladd etholiad! Mae cael ‘ticed am ddim’ bob tro’n tueddu i arwain at agwedd hunanfodlon a chymryd yr etholaeth yn ganiataol. Mae’r etholiad yma’n sicr o ysgwyd rhai ohonynt allan o drwmgwsg! ‘Roeddwn yn gywir gyda’r llaw yn rhagweld fy mod i’n gorfod ymladd am fy lle yn y Cyngor.
Mae’n ddiddorol cymharu rhwng 2004 a 2008.
Yn 2004 ‘roedd y sefyllfa fel a ganlyn:-
Arfon: 31 ardal etholiad, 19 ymgyrch (h.y. etholiad) 12 heb etholiad (h.y. aelod presennol yn cael ‘ticed am ddim’) (h.y. 61% o’r ardaloedd yn cael etholiad)
Dwyfor:- : 20 ardal etholiad, 10 ymgyrch (h.y. etholiad) 10 heb etholiad (h.y. aelod presennol yn cael ‘ticed am ddim’) (h.y. 50% o’r ardaloedd yn cael etholiad)
Meirionnydd. : 20 ardal etholiad, 6 ymgyrch (h.y. etholiad) 14 heb etholiad (h.y. aelod presennol yn cael ‘ticed am ddim’) (h.y. 30% o’r ardaloedd yn cael etholiad).
Mae’r uchod yn dangos bod Gwynedd yn yr etholiad 2004 wedi cael, allan o gyfanswm o 71 ardal, 35 etholiad. H.y. 49% o’r ardaloedd yn cael etholiad.
Y tro yma yn 2008:-
Arfon: 31 ardal etholiad, 23 ymgyrch (h.y. etholiad) 8 heb etholiad (h.y.rhai aelodau presennol yn cael ‘ticed am ddim’) (h.y. 74% o’r ardaloedd yn cael etholiad)
Dwyfor:- : 20 ardal etholiad, 18 ymgyrch (h.y. etholiad) 2 heb etholiad (h.y. aelod presennol yn cael ‘ticed am ddim’) (h.y. 90% o’r ardaloedd yn cael etholiad)
Meirionnydd. : 20 ardal etholiad, 12 ymgyrch (h.y. etholiad) 8 heb etholiad (h.y. rhai aelodau presennol yn cael ‘ticed am ddim’) (h.y. 60% o’r ardaloedd yn cael etholiad).
Mae’r uchod yn dangos bod Gwynedd yn yr etholiad 2008 am gael, allan o gyfanswm o 71 ardal, 53 etholiad. H.y. 75% o’r ardaloedd yn cael etholiad.
Mae hyn yn 25% fwy o etholiadau y tro yma, rhywbeth i’w groesawu.
Rhan ddiddorol o unrhyw etholiad yw pan ‘rydym ni'r cystadleuwyr yn cael trafodaeth o gwmpas y blwch pleidleisio gyda’r swyddog canlyniadau ar sut i ddelio gyda phleidleisiau anghonfensiynol. Y rheol oedd (dal i fod?) os medrwch yn rhesymol ddehongli bwriad y pleidleisiwr, mae’r bleidlais yna yn cyfri ar gyfer yr ymgeisydd priodol. ‘Rwyf wedi gweld ticiau yn cael eu defnyddio yn lle croes, y bocs croes yn cael ei liwio i mewn, yr enw’n cael ei danlinellu. Weithiau, mae’r pleidleisiwr yn or-ymateb, yn pleidleisio dros y ddau ymgeisydd, (dim yn cyfri). ‘Rwyf yn cofio’r tro lle ysgrifennwyd dros enw fi a’m gwrthwynebwr ‘Duw a’n helpo’. Tro arall ‘None of these f****rs’ oedd ymateb un etholwr
di-enw.
Sut bynnag y pleidleisiwch, neu ‘datgan’ eich barn, cofiwch fynd allan i bleidleisio, mae’n bwysig.

LLYGAD LLYN 8 Y Byd / Schools

2008-03-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

What in the world has happened to ‘Y Byd’. The imminent demise of a proposed daily Welsh language newspaper has had a lot of coverage in the Welsh media but scant attention in the English newsprint.
‘Y Byd’ has promised on at least 2 occasions, a launch of their ground breaking venture. Lift off was supposed to take place on 3rd March, but nothing transpired. The whole enterprise relies heavily on a public subsidy/grant, if the grant is not sufficient the publication will not go ahead.
Last August I set off to the ‘Y Byd’ stand at the Eisteddfod, clutching my chequebook as a prospective subscriber, and full of good intentions. Having had the experience as a managing director responsible for business plans, I wanted to know who/what was their target market, how they were going to reach it and what were the revenue streams.
In any business, knowing what to aim for and how many ‘hits’ you get, the target market is very important. ‘Y Byd’ was not looking to poach ‘Sun’ readers or any equivalent red top newspaper. The main thrust of its effort would have to be to persuade existing readers of quality newspapers to either give up on them or more probably buy Y Byd as an extra daily newspaper. I suspect finding readers who buy no newspaper at all and entice them into buying Y Byd, would not conjure up many extra sales.
Income is the life-blood of any business, most newspapers and magazines rely on 2 income streams, sales and advertising. In very many cases the latter is more important than the former. Numerous Welsh language publications rely on a 3rd stream, a grant or subsidy. This is where Y Byd’’s business plan fell apart. With only 700 subscribers instead of the anticipated 5000, the level of subsidy would need to be in the region of £600,000 to £1million a year. The Welsh Assembly Government refused to countenance such a subsidy.
Are newspapers yesterday’s technology? The very name ‘newspaper’ is itself a miss-nomer, most are by now ‘viewspapers’. News is readily available 24/7 from various radio stations, TV channels and several internet sources. Virtually every newspaper is suffering from a year on year loss of circulation. If Y Byd became a reality with a high level of subsidy, sucking in much needed advertising revenues from other Welsh language publications, would it become a cuckoo in the nest? Is the future of Y Byd as an internet newspaper a more viable alternative?
At the beginning of the month I, together with about 250 others from several parts of Gwynedd attended a meeting at Pwllheli, titled ‘Tynged yr Ysgolion’ (Destiny of the Schools). The meeting was in essence a protest about the strategy adopted by Cyngor Gwynedd for the re-organisation of Junior Schools and was addressed by eight speakers.
Nearly every speaker admitted that keeping the status quo was not an option. However for some of the speakers the status quo was the only option! One speaker intimated that the statistics for births used by Gwynedd were inaccurate (without providing evidence to prove his point) – but even if the birth rate in Gwynedd is increasing there is no reason to believe that these babies will be evenly ‘distributed’ throughout the County. Calls by many of the speakers for more money from the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), by Gwynedd and other councils, have already fallen on deaf ears and I suspect that similar entreaties will receive the same reply. A thread running through the each of the speeches was a mistrust of the system of federalisation of 2 or more schools. Several of the speakers envisaged it as a convenient back-door method of closing the smaller schools. A number admitted that appropriate, responsible federalisation with the agreement of those concerned was an option. Several references were made to the excellence of the teaching in small schools. I’ve no doubt that this is true, but one would expect it to be so with some of smaller schools costing 4 to 5 times as much per pupil to run as compared to a school of say 150 pupils.
Frequent references were made to the ‘consultation process’ carried out by Cyngor Gwynedd, this process was felt to be miss-leading or at best un-helpful. No reference was made to falling school numbers and the disturbing scenario that without re-organisation, before long, Gwynedd will have teachers ‘teaching’ 2400 empty desks.

No attempt was made to put forward a more equitable formula for the distribution of Gwynedd’s Education budget
It seemed to me that schools are perceived in 3 different ways. As a ‘service’, this in essence is Cyngor Gwynedd’s view, it has 15 major services, education is important and one of them. Schools are also viewed as an ‘establishment’, this is where it plays a greater part in the community than merely an educational outlet, such as an ‘after hours’ meeting place and a social resource. There is also the school viewed as a ‘tradition’. Many’s the argument that begins ‘ Mum,dad and my grandparents went to…therefore it must be kept open’. Tradition has a tendency to be ruled from beyond the grave., where the service to the community is sacrificed to ‘tradition’ One only needs to look around Gwynedd to see how much ‘tradition’ keeps open some chapels and churches with very little benefit from their service to their communities.
However shrill the calls were from the stage, no attempt will be made to revise any decisions prior to the Election on 1st May. After that we will get into the world of realpolitik, where realistic negotiations should hopefully lead to a balance between aspiration and reality.

Beth ar wyneb y ddaear sydd wedi digwydd i’r ‘Y Byd’? Mae ‘angladd’ honedig y papur newydd arfaethedig dyddiol cyntaf yn yr iaith Gymraeg wedi cael llawer o gyhoeddusrwydd yn y cyfryngau Cymraeg ond fawr ddim o sylw yn y Saesneg.
Mae ‘Y Byd’ wedi addo o leiaf dwywaith, lansio’r fenter arloesol yma. ‘Roeddd ‘lift off’ i fod ar 3ydd o Fawrth, ond ni ddigwyddodd. Mae’r fenter yn dibynnu’n drwm ar gymhorthdal neu grant sylweddol, os nad yw’r pres yma ar gael, ni fydd y cyhoeddiad yn mynd ymlaen.
Galwais i mewn ar stondin ‘Y Byd’ yn yr Eisteddfod mis Awst, gyda’r llyfr siec ac yn bwriadu ei chefnogi. Fel cyn rheolwr cyfarwyddwr ‘roeddwn yn gyfarwydd â chynlluniau busnes ac yn awyddus i glywed pwy oedd y farchnad targed, sut oedd dal nhw a beth oedd y ffrydiau ariannol.
Mewn unrhyw fusnes, mae gwybod beth i anelu at, a faint o ‘hits’ sy’n debygol yn y farchnad benodol yn bwysig iawn. Yn sicr nid oedd Y Byd yn disgwyl dwyn darllenwyr Sun na unrhyw bapur cyffelyb. Y prif darged yn debygol oedd darllenwyr presennol o bapurau newydd o safon a’u perswadio nhw i ollwng eu papur dyddiol (gweithred anodd), neu brynu’r Byd fel papur ychwanegol. ‘Rwyf yn amau’n gref bod perswadio darllenwyr sydd ddim yn darllen papur newydd o gwbl i brynu’r Byd yn dasg anodd iawn.
Incwm yw’r ‘petrol’ sy’n gyrru unrhyw fusnes, mae mwyafrif o bapurau newydd a chylchgronau’n ddibynnol ar ddwy ffrwd o arian, gwerthiant a hysbysebion. Yn aml iawn, mae’r olaf yn fwy pwysig na’r cyntaf. Mae nifer o gyhoeddiadau yn yr iaith Gymraeg yn dibynnu ar 3ydd ffrwd, sef grant neu gymhorthdal. Dyma le bu cynllun busnes Y Byd yn cwympo. Gyda dim ond 700 o danysgrifwyr yn lle’r 5,000 a ddisgwylir, ‘roedd lefel y cymhorthdal yn gorfod bod o gwmpas £600,000 i £1miliwn y flwyddyn. Nid oedd y Cynulliad yn barod i ystyried ffasiwn gymhorthdal.
Ydi papurau newydd yn dechnoleg ddoe? Mae’r enw ‘papur newyddion’ yn ei hun yn gamddehongliad, gan fod rhan fwyaf ‘nawr yn bapur barn/arolwg. Mae newyddion ‘nawr ar gael 24/7 ar y radio, teledu a nifer o ffynonellau ar y rhyngrwyd. Mae bron bob papur newydd dyddiol yn colli cylchrediad o flwyddyn i flwyddyn. Os gwireddwyd breuddwyd Y Byd, gyda lefel uchel o gymhorthdal, yn sugno pres hysbysebu o gyhoeddiadau eraill yn yr iaith Gymraeg, efallai mai creu cwcw yn y nyth buasai hyn. Ydi dyfodol Y Byd fel papur rhyngrwyd yn fwy credadwy?
Ar ddechrau’r mis, mynychais, gyda thua 250 eraill o wahanol rannau o Wynedd, gyfarfod yma ym Mhwllheli, gyda’r teitl ‘Tynged yr Ysgolion’. Cymerwyd 8 siaradwr rhan yn y cyfarfod ‘roedd yn ei hanfod yn brotest yn erbyn strategaeth Cyngor Gwynedd i ad-drefnu Ysgolion Cynradd.
Roedd bron pob siaradwr yn cytuno nad oedd cadw’r status quo yn opsiwn. Serch hynny cadw’r status quo oedd yr unig opsiwn i rai siaradwyr! Bu un siaradwr yn honni bod ystadegau genedigaethau Gwynedd ‘lled cae’ allan ohoni- ond heb dystiolaeth i brofi ei bwynt. Hyd yn oed os yw cyfradd genedigaethau yng Ngwynedd yn cynyddu nid oes rheswm i gredu bod y babanod yma am gael eu ‘gwasgaru’n’ gytbwys trwy’r Sir. Galwodd nifer o siaradwyr am fwy o bres o’r Cynulliad, ond mae galwadau niferus gan Wynedd a chynghorau eraill yn barod wedi cael eu gwrthod, ‘rwyf yn amau mae’r un ymateb y ceir y tro ‘yma.
Fel edau yn rhedeg trwy bob araith oedd drwgdybiaeth o’r drefn ‘ffederaleiddio’. Bu nifer o siaradwyr yn dehongli ffederaleiddio fel cynllun ‘drws cefn’ i gau ysgolion bach. Serch hynny gan rhai ar y llwyfan, ‘roedd ffederaleiddio cytbwys cyfrifol gyda chytundeb y rhai sy’n cael eu heffeithio yn opsiwn y dylid ystyried. Cyfeiriwyd nifer o weithiau i safon uchel y dysgu yn ysgolion bach. Nid wyf yn amau bod hyn yn wir, ond dylid disgwyl hyn gyda rhai o’r ysgolion bach yn costio 4 neu 5 gwaith y disgybl i redeg i gymharu ag ysgol o tua 150 o blant.
Cyfeiriwyd nifer o weithiau i’r broses o ‘ymgynghori’ a drefnwyd gan Gyngor Gwynedd, a mynegwyd y teimlad bod y weithred wedi bod yn gamarweiniol neu ar ei orau ddim o gymorth. Ni chyfeiriwyd at y scenario pryderys bod niferoedd y plant sy’n mynd i’r ysgolion cynradd yn lleihau. Cyn bo hir heb ad-drefnu bydd gan Wynedd athrawon yn ‘dysgu’ tua 2400 o ddesgiau gwag. Ni chynigwyd ffordd fwy teg i ddosbarthu cyllideb Addysg Cyngor Gwynedd.

Mae’n edrych i mi bod 3 gwahanol agwedd i ysgolion. Fel ‘gwasanaeth’, yn ei hanfod dyma beth yw barn Cyngor Gwynedd. Mae gan Wynedd 15 prif wasanaeth, mae addysg yn bwysig ac yn un ohonynt. Mae ysgolion hefyd yn cael eu gweld fel ‘sefydliad’ dyma le mae’r ysgol yn fwy nag adeilad addysg ond yn chwarae lle yn y gymuned fel adnodd cymdeithasol. Mae rhai ysgolion yn cael eu hadnabod fel ‘traddodiad’. Mae llawer o ddadleuon am gadw ysgol yn cychwyn ‘Mam, Dad, Nain a Taid wedi bod yn ysgol ……. felly mae rhaid ei gadw’n agored’. Mae traddodiad yn tueddu i gael ei lywio o du hwnt i’r bedd, ble mae gwasanaeth i’r gymuned yn cael ei aberthu ar allor ‘traddodiad’. Dim ond angen edrych o gwmpas Gwynedd i weld faint o ‘draddodiad’ sy’n cadw rhai o gapeli ac eglwysi ar agor gyda fawr ddim o fudd i’r gymuned.
Serch y galw o’r llwyfan, ni fydd unrhyw ymdrech i ail-edrych ar benderfyniad Cyngor Gwynedd cyn yr Etholiad ar 1af o Fai. Ar ôl yr Etholiad bydd angen agor y drws i realpolitik gyda thrafodaethau adeiladol sy’n arwain yn obeithiol tuag at gydbwysedd rhwng dyheadau a’r sefyllfa ar lawr gwlad.

2008-02-23T08:05:00.000-08:00

LLYGAD LLYN 7
There’s been a great deal in the newspapers recently about MP’s wages and expenses. Similarly in the local press, attention’s been drawn via the letters pages and occasional reports to County Councillors’ payments. One letter suggested that their Councillor was an indispensable and important member of society. Other letters offered the opinion that Councillors were as much a waste of space as the Millennium Dome and just about as expensive. Is the truth somewhere in the middle?

I’ll attempt to put a bit of financial flesh on this expenses skeleton and bring it out of the cupboard and into the light of day. The basic current allowance for a Councillor on Gwynedd, of £11,842 did not arrive in a blinding flash from on high, but was the result of an independent body who researched the work of Councillors in Wales.
The research found that a Councillor of a Unitary Authority i.e. Gwynedd, does on average about 90 hours of Council work a month.
A third of this should be unpaid voluntary work, in the form of representing the Council and community on the board of governors of the local schools, community health council and various other bodies, both local and national. That left 60 hours per month for Council work. That’s 15 hours per week on average for attending meetings, reading the reports and preparing for them. Dealing with the various queries and problems of the electors and meeting with Council officials. The committee meetings represent a small percentage of the time spent in Council work. Is 90 hours per month about right? I can only speak from experience; I’d say it’s slightly conservative as an estimate, but in the right area. This assessment is for a Councillor who is not a Chairman of a committee or portfolio leader or Council Leader. Their workload is significantly higher.
So what does all this amount to? In Gwynedd it costs the rate payer around £1 million a year in Councillors’ wages and expenses. One million a year sounds a lot! Remember however, everything’s relative, the Council costs/spends £200 million a year or thereabouts, so the Councillors’ costs are one half of a percent of expenditure.
What does the rate payer get for their hard earned cash? Is the Council just a talking shop and a cosy club for its pampered members? I’m surprised by a comment sometimes heard that County Councillors have no influence in local government. Yet they decide and participate in formulating policy. Who takes decisions on whether to close your local school, swimming pool, run a road through the field next door or locate a housing estate or new rubbish dump next to your home – it’s the Council. Local Government decisions by your Council can affect your personal way of life to a much larger extent than national government. If Alistair Darling (Chancellor of the Exchequer) decides to increase Income Tax, VAT or nationalise Northern Rock, it’s a Lands End to John o’Groats pronouncement affecting everyone. Not so a decision by Council on a local issue.
Electoral apathy tends to rule in local elections, last time round in 2004 the results were as follows:-
Arfon: 31 electoral areas, 19 contested (i.e. an election) 12 uncontested (i.e. sitting member gets a free ticket) (i.e. 61% of the areas contested)
Dwyfor:- 20 electoral areas, 10 contested (i.e. an election) 10 uncontested (i.e. sitting member gets a free ticket) (i.e. 50% of the areas contested)
Meirionnydd. : 20 electoral areas, 6 contested (i.e. an election) 14 uncontested (i.e. sitting member gets a free ticket) (i.e. 30% of the areas contested).
The above shows that Gwynedd in the election of 2004 had 35 elections in a total of 71 areas. i.e. 49% of the areas contested

This time in May 2008 it will be different, I suspect a lot fewer ‘free tickets’, due to several factors, the main one being the Council’s policy on junior schools. Elections this time will be much more interesting.
If the question to me is how many ‘free tickets’ have you had? The answer is none. This is my sixth election and I don’t expect one this time either, what with junior schools, the marina and supermarkets opening in Pwllheli, the writing’s on the wall for an election in Pwllheli North Ward.
Are there too many Councillors on Gwynedd, in my opinion undoubtedly, yes. Is there a solution? There are several, one is to halve the number of Councillors and double their allowance. This would be cheaper for the Council and ratepayers. It would also create an opportunity to enable more, better and younger candidates to try for the position. Their work would be more strategic, and would in my opinion, create a more agile Council responding quickly to changing circumstances and thus be more effective with its spending.
So get out your votes, dust them off and remember to cast them on the 1st of May. If you don’t, you may get the Councillors you deserve!

Mae nifer o papurau newydd wedi bod yn son am daliadau i Aelodau Seneddol. Yn dilyn y drefn yma mae’r cyfryngau lleol wedi bod yn cyhoeddi erthyglau a llythyrau ar gostau eich Cynghorwyr lleol. Darllenais un llythyr yn awgrymu bod y Cynghorydd Sir yn gonglfaen ei gymdeithas ac yn gymorth amhrisiadwy i’r ardal. Mae llythyrau eraill yn honni mae gwastraff arian a lle yw Cynghorydd Sirol. Yn bur debyg mae’r ateb rhywle rhwng y ddau begwn.
Ymdrechaf i osod ychydig o gnawd ar y sgerbwd cyllidol o daliadau i Gynghorwyr a’i denu o allan o’r cwpwrdd. Nid yw taliad sylfaenol o £11,842 i Gynghorydd yng Ngwynedd wedi ei ddarganfod fel ysbrydoliaeth oruwch naturiol, ond trwy gorff annibynnol a ymchwiliwyd gwaith Cynghorwyr yng Nghymru.
‘Roedd ymchwil yn dangos bod Cynghorydd ar Gyngor Unedol, fel Gwynedd yn gweithio ar gyfartaledd am tua 90 awr y mis. Ystyriwyd dylai 30 awr fod yn waith gwirfoddol, sef cynrychioli’r gymuned ar lywodraethwyr ysgolion, cyngor iechyd lleol a chyrff a mudiadau eraill. Mae hyn yn gadael 60 awr y mis i waith Cyngor, sy’n gyfystyr a tua 15 awr yr wythnos i ddarllen adroddiadau, paratoi am gyfarfodydd a delio gyda chwynion yr etholwyr. Mae cyfarfodydd y Cyngor yn ffurfio canran bach o’r uchod. Pa mor gywir yw’r amcangyfrif o 90 awr y mis? O brofiad, mae’r ffigwr braidd yn geidwadol ond yn yr ardal gywir. Cofiwch mai amcangyfrif o 90 awr yw’r ffigwr ar gyfer Cynghorydd sydd ddim yn Gadeirydd pwyllgor, Arweinydd Portffolio nag Arweinydd y Cyngor. Mae llwyth gwaith nhw’n llawer uwch.
Wel faint mae hyn yn costio’r trethdalwyr? Yng Ngwynedd mae’r bil tua £1 miliwn am gyflogau a threuliau’r Cynghorwyr. Faint! , ond cofiwch mai’r cyngor yn costio/gwario tua £200 miliwn y flwyddyn. Felly hanner o un y cant o wariant y Cyngor yw costau’r Cynghorwyr.
Be mae’r trethdalwyr yn cael am eu harian prin? Ydi’r Cyngor yn siop siarad â chlwb moethus i’w haelodau? ‘Rwyf yn aml wedi clywed nad oes gan Gynghorwyr Sir unrhyw ddylanwad mewn llywodraeth leol. Ond, Cynghorwyr sy’n cymryd rhan mewn llunio polisi a phenderfyniadau. Pwy sy’n penderfynu cau ysgol leol, pwll nofio, rhedeg lôn newydd trwy’r cae drws nesa’, neu leoli stad newydd o dai neu domen sbwriel drws nesa’ i’ch tŷ chi? Y Cyngor. Mae penderfyniadau gan eich Cyngor lleol yn medru dylanwadu ar eich bywyd personol mewn modd llawer mwy na llywodraeth ganolog. Os yw Alistair Darling (y Canghellor) yn penderfynu codi Treth Incwm, VAT, neu wladoli Northern Rock, mae’n effeithio ar bawb o John o’Groats i Lands End. Effaith lleol sydd gan y Cyngor.
Mae difaterwch etholiadol yn effeithio ar etholiadau lleol, tro'r blaen yn 2004 y canlyniadau oedd :-
Arfon: 31 ardal etholiad, 19 ymgyrch (h.y. etholiad) 12 heb etholiad (h.y. aelod presennol yn cael ‘ticed am ddim’) (h.y. 61% o’r ardaloedd yn cael etholiad)
Dwyfor:- : 20 ardal etholiad, 10 ymgyrch (h.y. etholiad) 10 heb etholiad (h.y. aelod presennol yn cael ‘ticed am ddim’) (h.y. 50% o’r ardaloedd yn cael etholiad)
Meirionnydd. : 20 ardal etholiad, 6 ymgyrch (h.y. etholiad) 14 heb etholiad (h.y. aelod presennol yn cael ‘ticed am ddim’) (h.y. 30% o’r ardaloedd yn cael etholiad).
Mae’r uchod yn dangos bod Gwynedd yn yr etholiad 2004 wedi cael, allan o gyfanswm o 71 ardal, 35 etholiad. H.y. 49% o’r ardaloedd yn cael etholiad.
Tro yma bydd pethe’n wahanol mis Mai 2008. ‘Rwyf yn credu bydd llawr llai o ‘dicedi am ddim’ ar gael. Bydd hyn yn deillio o nifer o ffactorau, y prif un yw ysgolion cynradd. Bydd etholiadau tro ‘ma’ lawer mwy diddorol.
Os yw’r cwestiwn, Faint o ‘dicedi am ddim’ mae Michael Sol Owen wedi cael? Yr ateb yw - dim. Hwn yw’r chweched etholiad i fi. Mae’r harbwr, ysgolion ac archfarchnadoedd yn sicr o greu sefyllfa etholiad yng Ngogledd Pwllheli.
Oes ‘na ormod o Gynghorwyr ar Gyngor Gwynedd? Yn fy marn i, oes. Beth yw’r ateb? Mae sawl ateb, un yw haneru’r nifer o Gynghorwyr a dyblu eu henillion. Mae’r ateb yma’n rhatach i’r Cyngor a’r trethdalwyr. Mae hefyd yn creu cyfle i annog mwy a gwell ymgeiswyr i sefyll yn yr etholiadau. Budd angen i’r gwaith fod yn fwy strategol, ac yn fy marn i greu Cyngor sy’n fwy ystwyth yn ymateb yn gyflymach i newidiadau ac yn fwy effeithiol gyda gwariant.
Felly, cofiwch am eich pleidleisiau, chwythwch y llwch oddi arnynt i bleidleisio ar y 1af o Fai. Os nad ydych yn pleidleisio, efallai cewch Gynghorwyr ‘rydych yn haeddu!

2008-01-15T08:03:00.001-08:00

LLYGAD LLŶN 6
‘For everything to remain as it is, everything must change’ so said Tancredi to his uncle the Prince in Lampedusa’s novel ‘The Leopard’. Is this quote a slogan for our times and appropriate for the recent Inspector’s Report on Cyngor Gwynedd’s Unitary Development Plan?
Gwynedd is a Unitary Authority, there are 22 of them in Wales, in 1995/6 with the re-organisation of Local Government in Wales all the County, District, Town/Borough and City Councils disappeared and were re-established as Unitary Authorities. Each Authority has to produce a Unitary Development Plan (UDP) or equivalent, giving in this area, the citizens of Gwynedd, businesses and all interested bodies a framework as to how the Council will deal with a myriad of situations, from planning to population demographics until at least 2016.
As expected it’s been a long complicated and arduous process. It started in about 2001. By 2004 a Draft Deposit of the UDP was ‘road showed’ around the County for a period of about six weeks in the Summer. The result of this was another weighty document, the ‘Gwynedd UDP Pre-inquiry Proposed Changes’, it landed on our desks in September 2005. The next step was to present all this work, (see photos) together with about 2,800 written comments/objections to the Plan to the Welsh Assembly Government Inspectors.

Some of what went to the Inspector.

They began their work in Caernarfon at the beginning of 2006 and had by August that year listened to or noted each and every policy, comment, proposal and aspect of the UDP. The next stage was for the Inspectors to write up the recommendations in the Inspector’s Report. This report, in the form of a CD, containing 1,307 pages was received by the Council last month.
The report’s official title :– Gwynedd Unitary Development Plan – Inspector’s Report, will have far reaching implications for many aspects of our lives here in Gwynedd. After skim reading the 1,307 pages I got the gist of where the Inspector’s Report is going and what’s recommended. The report is in the form of ‘recommendations’. What’s the meaning of ‘recommendation’, is it advice, suggestion or counsel? I suspect that although Gwynedd could in theory ignore the Report’s recommendations, the sheer weight of the Inspector’s authority will mean that the Council will accept most of these.
So what’s he flagging up in these recommendations? One of these on the ‘no, no’ list is Policy CH4 – New Dwellings in Rural Villages. This was inserted by Gwynedd to try and meet the demand by locals to build new dwellings in the vicinity of a Rural Village provided they met strict criteria. This recommendation to get rid of this policy means that it will severely restrict developments in the countryside.
Another blow to rural developments is the recommendation to re-draw more tightly the Development Boundaries, again fewer opportunities to build outside the main designated development areas.

What does all this mean? Disappointment and disillusionment for the aspiring local home owners, and the finger of blame unfairly pointed at the Council.
Another item which caught my eye, on pages 539 and 540 a reference to Policy D17 – ‘ Static Caravan and Holiday Chalet Sites – Extending the Season’. The Council wants this ‘Season’ to be ten and a half months. The obvious reason is to stop all year round occupation of holiday lets and the consequent ‘knock on’ effects in parts of the County both socially and economically. The Inspector’s recommendation – ‘ Year Round Occupation’ !

Bed-time reading for the UDP about 1ft of it!

The general ethos of the Report is metro-centric; virtually all new housing to be confined to established urban areas with development in the countryside to a large extent ignored.
I’ve only touched the top of the tip of the iceberg as far as this Inspector’s Report is concerned. I’m sure to re-visit it at some later date.

‘Os yw popeth am aros ‘run fath, mae rhaid i bopeth newid’ dyna be ddywedodd Tancredi wrth ei ewythr y Tywysog yn y llyfr gan Lampedusa ‘Y Llewpard’. A yw’r dywediad yma’n slogan ar gyfer y presennol a hefyd i Adroddiad yr Arolygydd - Cynllun Datblygu Unedol Gwynedd?
Mae Gwynedd yn Awdurdod Unedol, mae 22 ohonynt yma yng Nghymru. Yn 1995/6 gydag adrefnu Llywodraeth Leol diddymwyd bob Cyngor Dosbarth, Sir, Tref/Dinas a Bwrdeistref a lluniwyd yr Awdurdodau Unedol newydd. Mae rhaid i bob Awdurdod creu Cynllun Datblygu Unedol (CDU) neu drefn gyffelyb. Yn achos Gwynedd mae’r CDU i fod i ddangos i’r cyhoedd , busnesau a chyrff eraill, polisïau sydd am arwain y Cyngor i gymryd penderfyniadau ar nifer helaeth o bynciau, o gynllunio i newidiadau yn y boblogaeth tan o leaf 2016.
Fel y disgwylir mai wedi bod yn broses hir a chymhleth. Yn cychwyn yn 2001, ac erbyn 2004 ‘roedd ddogfen drafft ar gael o’r CDU, dangoswyd hwn hyd a lled Gwynedd mewn arddangosfa am gyfnod o tua 6 wythnos yn yr Haf.
Canlyniad hwn oedd ddogfen arall swmpus gyda’r teitl – ‘CDU Gwynedd Newidiadau Arfaethedig Cyn Ymchwiliad’, a chyhoeddwyd yn Medi 2005.
Y cam nesaf oedd cyflwyno’r oll ddogfennau, gyda thua 2800 sylwadau a gwrthwynebiadau i’r Arolygwyr Llywodraeth y Cynulliad. Cychwynnodd yr Arolygwyr ar eu gwaith yng Nghaernarfon tua dechrau 2006 ac erbyn Awst 2006 ‘roedd bob polisi, sylw a gwrthwynebiad i’r CDU wedi cael sylw. Wedyn ‘roedd angen i’r Arolygwyr ysgrifennu adroddiad ac awgrymu argymhellion (sef newidiadau) i’r Cynllun. Derbyniwyd yr adroddiad yma ar ffurf CD mis Rhagfyr. Mae 1,307 o dudalennau yn yr Adroddiad yma.
Teitl swyddogol yr adroddiad yw ‘Cynllun Datblygu Unedol Gwynedd - Adroddiad yr Arolygwr’ - bydd gan y ddogfen yma dylanwad pellgyrhaeddol ar fywyd yng Ngwynedd. Ar ôl bras-ddarllen y 1,307 o dudalennau cefais flas o le ‘roedd Adroddiad yr Arolygwr yn mynd a beth ‘roedd yr argymhellion. Mae’r adroddiad mewn ffurf ‘Argymhellion’. Ond beth yw ystyr ‘Argymell’; cenadwri, cyngor neu awgrym? Mae gan Gyngor Gwynedd yr hawl i anwybyddu bob ‘Argymhelliad’ gan yr Arolygydd, ond gydag oll bwysa’r Cynulliad tu ôl i awdurdod yr Arolygwr, ‘rwyf yn tybio mai derbyn rhan helaeth o’i Argymhellion bydd Cyngor Gwynedd.
Felly, beth sydd ar gael yn y ddogfen? Ar y rhestr ‘Dim Diolch’ yw Polisi CH4 - ‘Tai Newydd mewn Pentrefi Gwledig’. Crëwyd y polisi yma gan Wynedd i geisio ymateb i’r galw gan bobl leol am dai mewn ardaloedd gwledig. Mae’r Adroddiad am fynnu diddymu’r polisi yma, y canlyniad yw fydd hi’n llawer anoddach adeiladu yn y wlad.
Ergyd arall i ddatblygiadau yn yr ardaloedd gwledig yw‘r argymhelliad i dynhau ar y Ffiniau Datblygu, eto llai o gyfle i adeiladu tu allan i’r prif ardaloedd datblygu.
Beth yw canlyniad yr uchod? Yn fy marn i, siom a dadrithiad i’r bobl leol sydd am ymgeisio ac yn methu adeiladu yn eu ardaloedd gwledig, a’r bys wedi ei bwyntio’n annheg tuag at Gyngor Gwynedd am y penderfyniad.
Polisi arall a ddaliodd fy sylw oedd D17 - ‘Safleoedd Carafannau Sefydlog a Siales Gwyliau - Ymestyn y Tymor’ Mae’r Cyngor yn awyddus i weld y ‘Tymor’ yn cael ei ddehongli fel deg mis a hanner. Y rheswm, i atal defnydd trwy’r flwyddyn i osgoi’r canlyniadau strategol a chymdeithasol fydd yn dilyn yn rhai rhannau o’r Cyngor. Argymhelliad yr Arolygydd - Agor trwy’r flwyddyn!
Ethos cyffredinol yr Adroddiad yw ei fod yn ‘ddinesig’ ei arddull, gyda’r mwyafrif helaeth o ddatblygiadau’n cael eu cyfeirio tuag at yr aneddleoedd trefol a datblygiadau cefn gwlad yn cael eu hanwybyddu.
Dim ond crafu’r wyneb mae’r blog yma o’r Adroddiad yr Arolygwr, ‘rwyf yn sicr o ail-edrych ar hwn yn y dyfodol.

2007-12-18T13:53:00.000-08:00

LLYGAD LLYN 5
I make no apologies for returning to the subject of the Re-organisation of Primary Schools. This contentious issue has been given a considerable airing in the newspapers, TV and radio over the last two months. The discussion has been both heated and emotional. I’ve been receiving between 5 and 10 emails/letters a day, some expressing their opposition to changes logically and articulately, others lambasting both myself and the Council as being in league with the Devil himself.
The whole issue came to a head in the full Council meeting on 13th December. A colourful, noisy animated protest of about 600 people turned up outside the Council offices in the morning. Some children attended, shouldn’t they be in school? I’m quite relaxed about this, demonstrations should be part of their education.
As expected the debate was intense and took about two and a half hours to reach a vote. Out of the 70 Councillors present; 43 voted for the Document, 22 against and 5 abstained, a majority of 21 is significant there’s no possibility of this being construed as a ‘scraped through’ vote. This document now moves on to the next stage where consultations begin with the seven schools in the firing line to be shut.
There’s no doubt that this Re-organisation of Primary Schools is the most important strategic decision that Gwynedd has taken since its inception in 1995.
I believe, sitting there in the Council Chamber that an accumulation of factors, figures and circumstances played their part in the Council coming to their decision.
The fact of falling pupil numbers, leading eventually to teachers ‘teaching’ 2,400 empty desks in the County is not a sustainable situation, this played a part. Expenditure per pupil is also a very relevant point. It costs us, the Council Tax payer, about £10,500 per pupil if there are 10 or less in a school, even with up to 20 pupils per school it’s over £6,000 per pupil. Contrast this with a school of say 150 pupils the cost is around £2,500 per pupil. The Council, at the end of the day, has a democratic duty to see that the Educational resources are more equitably spent.
If the Council decided to do nothing in the vain hope that the situation will ‘self rectify’ we would be in dire straits. A ‘do nothing’ strategy would eventually; I believe result in the Welsh Assembly Government stepping in with a far more rigorous agenda resulting in all probability with more school closures.
‘Llais y Bobl’ has played an active and significant role in the last 2 months, galvanising and prodding those of the electorate, threatened with school closures or re-organisation, into action. The Council vote was a significant defeat for ‘Llais y Bobl’, it will be interesting to see how they will react.
In Local Government the elector has the opportunity to elect a representative every four years. Cyngor Gwynedd Council runs 15 major services ranging from Highways to Social Services. Education is one of these fifteen, any ‘single issue’ candidates such as Llais by Bobl will need to declare what they will cut from these services if they are to keep 106 primary schools open.
Will Llais y Bobl choose to fight every Councillor who voted for the re-organisation document in the May 2008 elections? Will they have enough candidates? Or will they decide to try and ‘negotiate’ the best deal possible for the schools in question?
As I said previously, in Local Government, politics has just got very interesting.

Nid wyf yn ymddiheuro am ail-ymweld ar y pwnc o Ad-drefnu Ysgolion Cynradd. Mae’r mater dadleuol yma wedi cael sylw trylwyr ar y cyfryngau yn ystod y ddeufis diwethaf. Mae’r trafodaethau wedi bod yn emosiynol a thanllyd. ‘Rwyf wedi bod yn derbyn tua 5 - 10 llythyr/e-bost y diwrnod yn ddiweddar, rhai ohonynt yn dadlau eu hachos yn feddylgar a chlir, rhai’n ymfflamychol ac yn cyhuddo fi a’r Cyngor o fod mewn perthynas a’r Diafol ei hun.
Penllanw’r trafodaethau oedd y Cyngor llawn dydd Iau’r 13eg o Ragfyr. Tu allan i’r Siambr ‘roedd tua 600 o bobl yn cymryd rhan mewn protest lliwgar, swnllyd a blymus. ‘Roedd plant ysgol ymysg y protestwyr, ‘rwyf yn bersonol ddim yn feirniadol ohonynt, mae protestio yn rhan o fywyd.
Fel roeddwn yn dychmygu, ‘roedd y trafodaethau’n ddwys iawn a chymerodd dwy awr a hanner cyn symud at bleidlais. Allan o’r 70 o Gynghorwyr ‘roedd yn bresennol, pleidleisiodd 43 dros y Ddogfen, 22 yn erbyn a bu 5 yn ymatal eu pleidlais. Mae mwyafrif o 21 yn arwyddocaol, nid oes modd dehongli’r canlyniad yma fel un sydd yn crafu fuddigoliaeth. Mae’r Ddogfen ‘nawr yn symud ymlaen i’r cam nesa’ gyda thrafodaethau efo’r saith ysgol gyntaf sydd ar y rhestr cau.
‘Rwyf o’r farn mae’r penderfyniad yma yw’r penderfyniad mwyaf strategol mae’r Cyngor wedi cymryd ers cychwyn yn 1995.
‘Rwyf yn credu, bod nifer o ffactorau wedi dylanwadu arnom ni’r Cynghorwyr i bleidleisio dros y ddogfen. Yn eu mysg oedd y ffaith bod niferoedd plant ysgolion cynradd yn disgyn, sy’n arwain yn y pen draw i athrawon yn ‘dysgu’ tua 2,400 o ddesgiau gwag, nid yw’r sefyllfa yma yn gynnaladwy. Mae gwariant y disgybl ym mater perthnasol. Mae’n costio ni, y Trethdalwr, tua £10,500 y plentyn os oes 10 neu lai o blant mewn ysgol, hyd yn oed gyda 20 yn yr ysgol mae’r gost dros £6,000 y disgybl. Cyferbynnwch y gost yma gyda thua 150 o blant yn yr ysgol ac mae’r ffigwr tua £2,500 y disgybl. Mae gan y Cyngor dyletswydd ddemocrataidd i sicrhau bod gwariant ar Addysg yn cael ei wario’n fwy cytbwys.
Os yw’r Cyngor yn penderfynu ‘neud dim yn y gobaith bod y sefyllfa am gywiro ei hun byddem mewn sefyllfa o argyfwng. Yn fy marn i, bydd strategaeth ‘neud dim’ yn golygu bod y Cynulliad yn camu i mewn gydag agenda llawer mwy llym gyda’r canlyniad bod mwy o ysgolion yn cau.
Mae ‘Llais y Bobl’ wedi chwarae rhan flaenllaw ac arwyddocaol yn y ddeufis dwytha, yn annog a phrocio’r etholwyr sydd mewn ardal lle mae bygythiad i’r ysgolion i ymateb i’r her. ‘Roedd 13 o Ragfyr felly yn gam yn ôl sylweddol iddynt. Sut maen nhw am ymateb?
Yn Llywodraeth Leol mae gan yr etholwr y cyfle i ethol Cynghorwr bob pedair blynedd. Mae Cyngor Gwynedd yn rhedeg 15 gwasanaeth o sylwedd, o Briffyrdd i Wasanaethau Cymdeithasol. Addysg yw un o’r gwasanaethau yma. Bydd angen felly i unrhyw ymgeiswyr ‘un neges’, fel aelodau ‘Llais y Bobl’ ddatgan pa wasanaethau maen nhw am dorri i dalu am gadw 106 o ysgolion cynradd ar agor.
Beth yw cynllun ‘Llais y Bobl’? Gwrthwynebu mewn etholiad mis Mai 2008 bob Cynghorydd sydd wedi pleidleisio dros y Ddogfen Ad-drefnu? Oes ‘na ddigon ohonynt? Neu geisio negodi'r gorau y medrant i’r ysgolion dan fygythiad?
Fel y dywedais o’r blaen, yn Llywodraeth Leol, mae gwleidyddiaeth wedi troi’n ddiddorol.

2007-11-14T01:30:00.000-08:00

LLYGAD LLŶN 4
Earlier than I predicted in Llygad Llyn 1 the issue of the Reorganisation of Primary Schools has returned with far reaching implications for the children, parents and the Council. A draft of the proposed strategy has now been released and in at least one instance prematurely ‘escaped’ into the public domain.
Briefly it proposes a reduction from 106 primary schools to 48 schools located on 85 different sites. It’s a combination of Federal Schools, Area Schools and Schools with no change envisaged. If this plan is adopted in its entirety, 29 schools will close, the majority of those in Dwyfor and Meirionnydd. Councillors generally don’t like politically turbulent waters, especially before an election. With Local Government elections in May 2008 this radical document will without doubt create a rush to the lifejackets for some members of the Council.
I believe that the Council will divide into 2 broadly based ‘factions’, those that will act parochially, either because a school or schools in their electoral area is/are threatened with closure or federalization or they oppose any closures on principal. The others will be more strategic and foresee that a ‘no vote’ on this may result in the smaller schools gradually losing their pupils and the possibility of the Welsh Assembly Government coming in with a ‘slash and burn’ policy to rationalise the educational situation.
The reaction by Members has already begun. Councillor Penri Jones the Portfolio Leader for Schools and Language has resigned has he feels that he cannot in conscience support all the recommendations, he will however remain within the ruling group, Plaid Cymru on the Council.
Councillor Simon Glyn has decided that his opposition to the proposals are such that he has resigned from the ruling group and also called for the Leader of the Council (Richard Parry Hughes) to resign. I did however hear one member of the ruling group remark on hearing of Simon Glyn’s resignation ‘Ah well every cloud has a silver lining’.
There’s no doubt that the meetings between the Council, parents and the junior school governors over the last 12 months has not been a resounding success. This is for a number of reasons, but in the main that a miss-understanding of what was meant by ‘consultation’. For the parents this meant – ‘listen to what we have to say and carry out our wishes’, for the Council – ‘we’ll take soundings and come up with an appropriate strategy’.
Thursday 25th October was the 1st opportunity for those affected by this new proposal to air their views. Some 300 to 500 (depending on which paper you read) turned out to express their anger and opposition to the proposed strategy. It won’t be the last protest, there will be many more to follow. When the dust has settled, when all the verbal shots have been fired, how much of the original strategy will be left intact, who is going to lose their bottle and blink 1st? To the lay-person, local government has suddenly got interesting.

Yn gynharach na’r disgwyl, mae’r pwnc o Ad-drefnu Ysgolion Cynradd Gwynedd wedi dychwelyd, gydag oblygiadau pellgyrhaeddol i’n plant, rhieni a’r Cyngor. Mae dogfen drafft o’r strategaeth wedi ei rhuddai ac mewn o leiaf un achlysur wedi ‘dianc’ yn gynamserol i’r byd mawr.
Yn gryno mae’r cynllun yn argymell gostyngiad o 106 o ysgolion cynradd i 48 o ysgolion wedi eu lleoli ar 85 wahanol safle. Cyfuniad o Ysgolion Federal, Ysgolion Ardal ac Ysgolion sydd ddim am newid. Os yw’r strategaeth yn cael ei fabwysiadu yn ei gyfanrwydd mae 29 o ysgolion am gau, y mwyafrif yn Dwyfor a Meirionnydd. Nid yw Cynghorwyr ar y cyfan yn hoffi dyfroedd dryslyd, yn enwedig cyn etholiad. Gydag etholiadau Llywodraeth Leol ar y gorwel, mis Mai 2008 bydd y ddogfen ddadleuol yma’n sicr o annog rhai o’r Cynghorwyr i redeg am loches o’r storm.
‘Rwyf yn credu y bydd y Cynghorwyr yn rhannu’n ddwy garfan. Y rhai sydd am weithredu’n blwyfol, naill ai am fod ysgol neu ysgolion yn yr etholaeth dan fygythiad cau neu ei ffederaleiddio, neu eu bod yn gwrthwynebu mewn egwyddor cau ysgolion. Bydd y garfan arall yn fwy strategol ac yn rhagweld bod pleidleisio ‘na’ ar y cynllun yn efallai golygu bod yr ysgolion lleiaf yn colli eu disgyblion, gyda’r posibilrwydd o’r Cynulliad dod i mewn yn y dyfodol ac yn gweithredu polisi llawer mwy llym i resymoli’r sefyllfa addysg gynradd.
Mae ymateb gan yr Aelodau wedi cychwyn. Mae Cynghorydd Penri Jones Arweinydd Portffolio ar Ysgolion a’r Iaith wedi ymddiswyddo oherwydd na fedrith yn gydwybodol, cefnogi bob argymhelliad sydd yn y ddogfen, serch hynny mae o am aros yn y grŵp llywodraethu’r Cyngor, Grŵp Plaid Cymru.
Mae Cynghorydd Simon Glyn wedi ymddiswyddo o’r grŵp llywodraethu am ei fod yn gwrthwynebu cymaint o’r argymhellion, mae o hefyd wedi galw ar Arweinydd y Cyngor (Richard Parry Hughes) i ymddiswyddo. Sut bynnag, clywais un aelod o’r grŵp llywodraethu, o glywed bod Cynghorydd Simon Glyn yn ymddiswyddo, yn deud ‘Mae rhaid diolch am bob bendith’
Mae’n amlwg nad yw’r cyfarfodydd rhwng y Cyngor, y rhieni a llywodraethwyr yr ysgolion cynradd yn ystod y 12 mis diwethaf, wedi bod yn llwyddiant ysgubol. Mae nifer o resymau am hyn, ond un o’r prif resymau yw beth oedd dehongliad y gair ‘ymgynghori’; i’r rhieni golygai hyn - ‘gwrandewch beth sydd gennym i ddweud a gweithredwch ar ein dymuniadau’. I’r Cyngor yr ystyr oedd - ‘nodwn eich sylwadau a ddod yn ôl gyda strategaeth berthnasol’
Dydd Iau 25ain o Hydref ‘roedd y cyfle 1af i’r rhai oedd am gael eu heffeithio a’r cynllun newydd dangos eu gwrthwynebiad. Bu 300 i 500 (dibynnu ar ba bapur ‘rydych yn ei ddarllen) o brotestwyr yng Nghaernarfon i ddangos eu gwrthwynebiad i’r strategaeth drafft newydd. ‘Rwyf yn rhagweld llawer mwy o brotestio. Wedi’r llwch setlo, ar ddiwedd y dydd, faint o’r strategaeth wreiddiol fydd ar ôl, pwy sydd am sefyll i lawr? I’r person yn y stryd mae llywodraeth leol yn sydyn wedi troi’n ddiddorol.

2007-09-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

Steam/Sulphur fields Iceland

LLYGAD LLŶN 3
Since my last entry in August, I’ve been out of circulation as Gwyneth and I took the opportunity to visit the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland.
The Faroes, midway between the Shetlands and Iceland is a collection of 18 islands, 17 of them inhabited. The population ranging from 22,000 on the main island Streymoy to 2 in nearby Koltur. The capital Torshavn, when we docked on a Sunday, reminded me of Pwllheli in the early ‘60’s. Not the architecture which is Scandinavian, but the mind-set. Every shop, café and restaurant that Sunday morning appeared shut, the reason being that nearly 90% of the population of the Faroes are Lutheran and regularly attend Sunday services. Their main industry is fishing; they’re a fiercely independent nation with their own language Faroese, derived from the old Norse, their own culture and Parliament since Home Rule in 1948.
Our next port of call was Akureyri, Iceland. I’d visited Iceland previously in 1968, then it seemed to me a Northern outpost of civilisation. Very few tarmac roads and the interior of the country so empty and desolate one needed, as a visitor, a pass to venture into the wilderness of hot springs, volcanoes and glaciers. I was told that camping in some of the remoter corners of Iceland, one would see someone on average once every seven years!
Not any longer, the rapid expansion of tourism and the advent of the 4-wheel drive, have made Iceland much more accessible. However, it’s well worth a visit to see the sulphur and hot springs, glaciers and expansive scenery.

Harbour/fjord Greenland

The approach by sea to East Greenland is dramatic. There is firstly a discernable lowering of the air temperature as the ship leaves the benign influence of the Gulf Stream to enter the cold Greenland Current. Then comes the sighting, on the horizon of the icy mountainous terrain, and barely discernable at first, small white translucent dots. As we approach, these dots become white ice islands with waves breaking along their shore. I was astonished and captivated by the number, variety, colour and the sheer size of these icebergs. Some no bigger than a kitchen table, others much larger than Caernarfon Castle. This parade of ice islands extended to the horizon and hugged the rocky inhospitable coastline.

Iceberg in harbour approx 100ft high

Our port of call Tasiilaq, Greenland , seemed like an outpost of civilisation. It’s the largest town in East Greenland, dependent on fishing and increasingly on tourism. Dogsleds are still an important form of transport during the winter; consequently the summer is holidays for the huskies. During this time they are only fed once every 4 days with raw seal meat, but given water every day, in winter this practice is reversed.
Tasiilag is a town of some 1800 inhabitants living in brightly painted Scandinavian style wooden houses scattered on the mountain sides and around a deep fjord which acts as a natural harbour for the town. The harbour had its complement of icebergs, during the beginning of August the entrance to the fjord was blocked by a large iceberg which prohibited vessels from using the harbour. The population of the town consists of a mixture of native Inuit and Danish. Denmark administers Greenland, consequently one presumes that a high proportion of government officials hail from Denmark. The Inuit, the majority of the population have their own language, which surprisingly is substantially different from the Inuit of West Greenland.

Sailing away past ice berg

From the view point of the hill above the town one could see the Valley of Flowers. In this valley was located the town cemetery, each grave was marked by a white wooden cross and festooned with colourful plastic flowers. Unusually these crosses did not bare the names of the deceased, I wonder why not?
We left Greenland mid afternoon to cruise, once again amongst the ice castles of the sea on our way back to Iceland.
Next month it will be business as usual, as the Council starts on a new round of meetings. I’ll also be looking at how local businesses have fared in what’s been a very poor summer.

Cymerodd Gwyneth a minnau seibiant bach diwedd Awst a dechrau Medi ac ymweld ag Ynysoedd y Faroe, Gwlad yr Ia a Greenland.
Mae’r Faroes tua hanner ffordd rhwng Ynysoedd y Shetland a Gwlad yr Ia, yn gasgliad o 18 o ynysoedd gyda phobl yn byw ar 17 ohonynt. Ar Streymoy yr ynys fwyaf trigai tua 22,000, ond dim ond 2 ar yr ynys agosaf, Koltur. ‘Roedd Torshavn, lle angorodd y cwch dydd Sul yn atgoffa fi o Bwllheli yn y ‘60au cynnar. Dim y bensaernïaeth, sydd yn Scandinafaidd, ond y meddylfryd. Nid oedd ‘run siop, caffi, na thŷ bwyta ar agor, y rheswm, mae bron 90% o boblogaeth y Faroes yn Lutheran ac yn mynychu gwasanaethau’r Sul. Y prif ddiwydiant yw pysgota, maent yn genedl falch ac annibynnol, gydag iaith eu hunan, diwylliant a Senedd ers 1948.
Y porthladd nesa oedd Akureyri, Gwlad yr Ia. ‘Roeddwn wedi ymweld â Gwlad yr Ia yn 1968, ac yn debyg i bendraw’r byd. Yn brin iawn o lonydd tarmac a chanol y wlad mor ddiffaith a gwag fel ‘roedd angen ymwelwr ganiatâd arbennig i grwydro ymysg y mynyddoedd tanllyd, y dyfroedd chwilboeth a’r mynyddoedd rhew. ‘Roedd yn debygol na welwch ond tua un person bob 7 mlynedd os ‘roeddech yn campio yn rhai o’r llefydd anghysbell yng nghanol y wlad.
Erbyn hyn, nid yw hyn yn wir. Mae datblygiad twristiaeth a’r 4-wheel drive wedi agor Gwlad yr Ia allan. Serch hynny, mae’n werth gweld y ffynhonnau dwr poeth, y glaciers a’r golygfeydd godidog.
Mae nesáu at Greenland yn ddramatig. Yn gyntaf mae’r tymheredd yn gollwng fel mae’r cwch yn gadael dylanwad cynnes y Gulf Stream i mewn i oerni'r Greenland Current. Wedyn gweld mynyddoedd creigiog a gwyn y wlad ac yn raddol dotiau bach gwyn sydd yn cynyddu’n fynyddoedd gwyn anferth yn nofio yn y môr. ‘Roedd yn brofiad syfrdanol gweld y nifer, lliw a phensaernïaeth yr icebergs yma. Rhai cyn lleied â bwrdd cegin, ond eraill yn llawer mwy na Chastell Caernarfon. Ymestynnir golygfa yma tuag at y gorwel ac ar hyd yr arfordir.
‘Roedd y porthladd Tasiilag yn teimlo fel pendraw’r byd. Y dref fwyaf yn Ddwyrain Greenland, yn ddibynnol am ei fywoliaeth ar bysgota a fwyfwy ar dwristiaeth. Un o’r prif ffyrdd o symud o gwmpas yn y Gaeaf yw sled a chŵn. Fel canlyniad mae’n wyliau ar y nifer fawr o huskies Tasiilag yn ystod yr Haf. Yn ystod yr Haf mae’r cŵn dim ond yn cael bwyd o gig morlo amrwd unwaith bob 4 diwrnod gyda diod o ddŵr bob diwrnod. Yn y Gaeaf mae’r drefn yma’n cael ei wrthdroi.
Mae Tasiilag yn dref o tua 1800, y boblogaeth yn byw mewn tai pren wedi eu paentio a lliwiau llachar ac o bensaernïaeth Scandinafaidd. Maent wedi eu gwasgaru ar lethrau’r mynyddoedd cyfagos ac o gwmpas y fijord sydd yn gweithredu fel harbwr naturiol i’r dref. Yn yr harbwr ‘roedd nifer o icebergs ac ar ddechrau mis Awst nid oedd yn bosib cael mynediad i’r harbwr oherwydd yr iceberg fawr ‘roedd yn cau ceg y porthladd. Mae’r boblogaeth yn cynnwys cymysgedd o Ddanaidd a Inuit (Escimos). Denmark sy’n llywodraethu Greenland, o ganlyniad ‘rwyf yn tybio bod rhan fwyaf o weinyddwyr yna yn Ddanaidd. Mae mwyafrif o’r boblogaeth yn Inuit, mae ganddynt iaith eu hunain sydd yn wahanol iawn i iaith Inuit Gorllewin Greenland.
O’r bryn uwchlaw'r dref cafwyd golygfa o Gwm y Blodau, yna ‘roedd y fynwent i’r dref. Ar bob bedd, croes wen a thoreth o flodau plastig, ond dim enw ar yr un. Pam tybed?
Gadawodd y cwch yn y prynhawn hwyr i nofio ymysg y cestyll gwyn yn y môr ar ei ffordd i Wlad yr Ia.
Mis nesa yn ôl i’r drefn, gyda’r Cyngor yn cychwyn ar gyfres newydd o gyfarfodydd. Byddaf hefyd yn cael cip olwg ar sut mae busnesau wedi ‘neud ar ôl yr Haf sâl.

2007-08-16T13:22:00.001-07:00

Llygad Llŷn 2
July was a busy month for the Council. There is an attempt to wrap up as many issues as possible prior to the August holidays. One of the most pressing problems for the Council is how to find about £4 million of savings in the next financial year. To this end the various tasks carried out by the Council were divided into 3 separate categories. The different working groups then had to decide whether these tasks were ones that should probably be reviewed, with the possibility of being downsized or outsourced, those that possibly should the reviewed, and those that were ‘no way José’, to be interfered with. This was a difficult task and demanded a degree of frankness not often seen between Councillors and Officers. The next stage will be to scrutinise thoroughly these options.
I’ve spent a very enjoyable week in the National Eisteddfod, Mold. Plenty to see, listen to and ponder at. During the week I attended two political meetings. One held at the Welsh Assembly’s salubrious event tent. Five members of the Assembly were at a question and answer session. A rather lack lustre affair, dominated in the main by questions from the floor by special interest groups. The answers tended to be all of the nature ‘we’ve listened to your problems; we’ll try and improve on the service’. Laudable but possibly more suited to a seminar than a debate on matters of general interest. The only frisson of disunity amongst the choreographed unity in the panel was when a question was asked about the facilities for elective neuro-surgical treatment. This is available at two sites in Wales, one in Swansea the other in Cardiff, none in North Wales. Answers from 2 members of the panel were. It was important to keep the service within Wales i.e. don’t outsource. The Welsh Assembly would look at financing the cost of the North Wales families to stay and visit the patient in South Wales.
My reaction to this is, do some politicians think before allowing words to fall out of their mouths? Where does one draw the line on financially assisted visits? What is the definition of ‘a family’? What about the distance, work and schooling for the family members?
The Institute for Welsh Politics conducted a much livelier debate with representatives of the 4 major parties, on the outcome of the May 2007 Election to the Welsh Assembly.
One of my most confusing moments was in the Eisteddfod car park, trying to find my silver Renault Clio. Have you noticed how similar cars of this type, regardless of make have become? Apart from a few gimmicky add-ons, what dictates design to a great extent is aerodynamics, one can’t fool the physics so each small car tends to look the same. Is the aerodynamics of politics the reason why so many of the policies flagged up by the 4 parties were remarkably similar? Apart from a few electoral gimmicks are they sufficiently different that they sound the same?
A razzmatazz of publicity followed the decision by the Welsh Language Board’s refusal to take part in BBC Radio 4’s programme ‘Hecklers’. The reason for refusal was that the agenda regarding Welsh language issues has moved on and re-visiting these old arguments, which by now are dead in the water, is inappropriate. Has a golden opportunity to promote the Welsh language and culture on Radio 4 been missed here? Surely the 4 members of the panel chosen for ‘Hecklers’ could have easily demolished the arguments of the UKIP member on the other side of the microphone.

Llygad Llŷn 2
‘Roedd Gorffennaf yn fis prysur i’r Cyngor; a ninnau’n ceisio cwblhau cymaint o waith a phosib cyn gwyliau mis Awst. Un o broblemau blaenllaw y Cyngor yw sut i ddarganfod tua £4 miliwn o arbedion yn y flwyddyn ariannol nesa. I’r perwyl yma, rhannwyd gwahanol weithgareddau’r Cyngor i 3 categori. Bu’r gweithgorau wedyn yn edrych os oedd y gweithgareddau’n rhai y dylid eu hadolygu gyda’r posibilrwydd o gael ei leihau neu ei allanoli, ei adolygu, neu ei adael fel y mae. Tasg anodd a oedd yn gofyn am ddidwylledd ymysg y Cynghorwyr a’r Swyddogion. Y cam nesa yw archwilio’r opsiynau yn fanwl.
Mwynheais yr wythnos yn yr Eisteddfod, Wyddgrug. Digon i’w weld, clywed ac ystyried. Yn ystod yr wythnos, mynychais 2 gyfarfod gwleidyddol. Ym mhabell foethus y Cynulliad, ‘roedd 5 aelod o’r Cynulliad mewn sesiwn cwestiwn ac ateb.
Braidd yn ddifflach oedd y gweithgaredd, nifer o gwestiynau o’r llawr gan fudiadau yn ymgyrchu dros well gwasanaethau. Bu’r atebion yn tueddu i fod o’r un natur sef, ‘’rydym yn gwrando ac am geisio gwella’r gwasanaeth’. Ardderchog, ond efallai’n well cael seminar ar y pynciau yma a chael mwy o gwestiynau cyffredinol.
Cynhyrfwyd y dyfroedd rhywfaint gan gwestiwn ar y gwasanaeth triniaeth niwrolegol sydd ar gael yn Abertawe a Caerdydd, ond nid yng Ngogledd Cymru. Atebion gan ddau o’r panel oedd, bod hi’n bwysig cadw’r gwasanaeth tu fewn i Gymru, h.y. dim allanoli. Mae’r Cynulliad yn edrych i mewn i ariannu'r gost o gludo ac aros i deuluoedd sy’n ymweld â chleifion yn Ne Cymru.
Y cwestiwn yw:- ydi’r gwleidyddion yn meddwl digon cyn arllwys y fath atebion allan? Ble fydd y llinell ar gyfer ymweliadau sy’n cael eu hariannu? Beth a pa mor fawr yw ‘teulu’? Beth am y pellter, gwaith ac addysg i aelodau’r teulu?
Trefnwyd Sefydliad Gwleidyddiaeth Cymru sesiwn llawer mwy bywiog gyda 4 cynrychiolydd o’r prif bleidiau yn trafod canlyniadau’r Etholiad Cynulliad Mai 2007.
Un o’r adegau mwyaf cymysglyd yn ystod yr Eisteddfod oedd yn y maes parcio, yn ceisio cael hyd i fy Renault Clio. Sylwch pa mor debyg yn awr yw ceir o’r un faint, heblaw am gimmics a fan ychwanegiadau. Beth sy’n arglwyddiaethu yn cynllun y car yw ‘aerodynamics’, nid oes modd twyllo’r ffiseg, felly mae’r ceir yn cael eu dylunio’n debyg iawn i’w gilydd. Ydi aerodynamics politics yn rheswm pam bod nifer fawr o bolisïau sy’n cael eu cynnig gan y 4 blaid mor debyg i’w gilydd?
Heblaw ambell i gimig etholiadol, ydynt digon gwahanol i swnio’n ‘run fath?
Bu ton o gyhoeddusrwydd ar ôl penderfyniad Bwrdd yr Iaith i beidio cymryd rhan yn rhaglen BBC Radio 4 ‘Hecklers’. Y rheswm rhoddwyd oedd bod yr agenda ar faterion yr iaith Cymraeg wedi symud ymlaen, ac ail-ymweld a’r hen ddadleuon, sydd erbyn hyn wedi marw, ddim yn briodol. A oedd cyfle bendigedig i hyrwyddo'r iaith a diwylliant Cymraeg ar Radio 4 wedi ei golli fama? Hyderwn fod y 4 aelod o’r panel a ddewiswyd i fynd ar ‘Hecklers’ yn medru’n hawdd dinistrio unrhyw ddadleuon gan aelod o UKIP ‘roedd ochr arall i’r microffon.

1st COLUMN, COLOFN 1af

2007-07-23T06:19:00.000-07:00

LLYGADLLŶN – Michael Sol Owen
Gareth during a moment of weakness, or possibly lunacy thought it might be a good idea if I wrote a column online under the title of Llygadllŷn now that my term of office as Chairman of Cyngor Gwynedd has come to an end.
I’m going to take the opportunity, or liberty perhaps of wandering beyond the confines of Llŷn and comment occasionally on the trials and tribulations of Cyngor Gwynedd and those movers and shakers, slackers and slammers that make this, the biggest employer in the County tick.
On the 12th July there was a meeting of full Council. Due to the length of the agenda we started an hour early at 1-00pm. One of the items on the programme was talk by Steve Thomas Chief Executive of the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA). Councillors usually meet a lecture of this nature from the great and good with the same enthusiasm as a personal visit from the Tax Inspector. However Mr Thomas was strategic, humorous and had a good line in patter. It kept us awake and ready to question him. One of the items on the WLGA’s ‘give me give me’ list is the return of the Councils’ right to tax businesses. I think it was Adam Smith that coined the phrase ‘No taxation without representation’. When tackled on this issue Mr Thomas lamely replied that the Councils had this power up to about 20 years ago and that previous to this for over 100 years they’d managed a business tax.
I believe that any Council would find this extra well of revenue for ‘worthy expenditure’ an irresistible temptation. Especially when the businesses have no voting rights. For the vast majority of Gwynedd’s citizens, Councillors are not on the top of their Christmas card list. A local business tax would make the Council more unpopular with residents than it already is.
The saga of a roundabout on the new road by-passing Clynnogfawr finally met its fate. Discussed at length in the same meeting, Councillor Owain Williams of Clynnog put up a good case for the roundabout. It was defeated by 12 votes; I think the main argument against it was road safety in general, in that a turn off for Clynnog is safer than a roundabout in this instance.
Arwyn Thomas Her Majesty’s Inspector for schools (HMI) was also at full Council to give the ESTYN report on Access and School Organisation, (no marks for guessing what the main topic of debate was) yes you’re right, Junior Schools and closures. Councillor Dafydd Iwan was particularly critical of the rather ‘pussy-footed’ approach of ESTYN regarding this issue. There was no clear indication in the report that some schools will have to close. Mr A Thomas’ reply was that they need to be able to give guidelines but not be too prescriptive; they were not there to make policy for the Council. No one wants to be caught with the smoking gun aimed at the Junior Schools!
This item will return around December, watch out when the smoke clears and who is left standing.

LLYGADLLŶN – Michael Sol Owen
A Gareth mewn eiliad o wendid neu efallai wallgofrwydd, a minnau wedi darfod yn fy swydd fel Cadeirydd Cyngor Gwynedd, penderfynodd ofyn i mi ysgrifennu colofn fisol dan y teitl Llygadllŷn
‘Rwyf am gymryd y cyfle o droedio tu allan i Lŷn a bwrw sylw nawr ac yn y man ar weithgareddau Cyngor Gwynedd, yr ysgytwyr a cheffylau blaen, y di-nod a’r ymgecwyr sy’n ymwneud a Gwynedd y cyflogwr mwyaf yn y Sir.
Ar 12fed o Orffennaf ‘roedd cyfarfod llawn o’r Cyngor, ac oherwydd maint y rhaglen dechreuwyd am 1-00pm, awr yn gynnar. Un eitem ar yr agenda oedd araith gan Steve Thomas Prif Weithredwr Cyngor Llywodraeth Leol Cymru (CLLLC). Mae tueddiad i gynghorwyr groesawu’r math yma o ddarlith o’r uchelfannau mor frwdfrydig ag ymweliad personol gan Arolygydd Treth. Ond yn groes i’r disgwyliad ‘roedd Mr Thomas yn strategol, ac yn siaradwr egniol a diddorol. Bu neb yn syrthio i drwmgwsg a taflwyd digon o gwestiynau iddo ar ddiwedd y ddarlith. Un o eitemau ar restr yr CLLLC yw dychwelyd y dreth busnes yn ôl dan adain y Cynghorau. ‘Rwyf yn credu mai Adam Smith ddywedodd ‘ Dim trethu heb gynrychiolaeth’. Pan ofynnwyd iddo ynglŷn â’r mater yma, ‘roedd ateb Mr Thomas braidd yn llipa, sef ‘roedd gan y Cynghorau'r hawl yma tan tua 20 mlynedd yn ôl a cyn hyn yn mynd yn ôl dros 100 mlynedd i weithredu treth busnes
‘Rwyf yn credu y bydd unrhyw Gyngor yn ystyried y ffynhonnell ychwanegol o arian yn demtasiwn anorchfygol ar gyfer ‘gwariant teilwng’. Yn enwedig tra bydd gan fusnesau ddim hawl i bleidlais. I ran fwyaf o’r trethdalwyr, nid yw Cynghorwyr ar ben eu rhestr cardiau Nadolig. Bydd treth busnes lleol yn golygu mai llai poblogaidd fydd y Cyngor.
Mae saga'r cylchdro ar y ffordd osgoi arfaethedig heibio Clynnog Fawr yn brysur ddirwyn i ben. Trafodwyd y mater yn drylwyr yn yr un cyfarfod gyda Cyng. Owain Williams yr aelod lleol yn dadlau yn effeithiol dros gael cylchdro. Methwyd y cynnig o 12 pleidlais, ‘rwyf yn credu'r prif reswm yn erbyn y cylchdro oedd materion diogelwch ffyrdd.
‘Roedd Arwyn Thomas Arolygydd Ei Mawrhydi (HMI) hefyd yn bresennol yn y Cyngor i gyflwyno adroddiad ESTYN ar Fynediad a Threfniadaeth Ysgol, (dim marciau ychwanegol am ddyfalu beth oedd prif destun trafod) ia, cau Ysgolion Cynradd. Roedd Cyng. Dafydd Iwan yn feirniadol iawn o’r ymateb glastwraidd gan ESTYN i’r pwnc yma. Nid oedd arweiniad pendant yn yr adroddiad y bydd rhaid cau rhai o’r Ysgolion Cynradd. Ymateb Mr Thomas oedd eu bod nhw’n barod i awgrymu canllawiau ond nid rôl ESTYN oedd cynllunio polisi i’r Cyngor. Yn amlwg nid oes neb eisiau cael ei dal gyda’r gwn wedi anelu tuag at Ysgolion Cynradd.
Mae’r pwnc llosg yma am ddychwelyd tua mis Rhagfyr, gwyliwch allan pan fydd y mwg wedi clirio pwy fydd ar ei draed!