Hoe fach - A short break

Bydd y Cneifiwr yn mynd dros y ffin am bythefnos - nid ar wyliau ac nid hyd y mynno Ei Mawrhydi - ond i wella economi Cymru.

Diolch i bawb am eu cyfraniadau. Tan ddechrau mis Medi!

Cneifiwr is off to do a little late shearing work in England for two weeks. Normal service will be resumed in early September.

Keeping a low profile

Earlier this week the S4C current affairs programme Hacio took a look at the activities of The Victory Church in Cwmbrân. Victory is embroiled in a number of controversies, not least for its claims relating to faith healing.

Whatever else can be said about this American-style evangelical church which is part of the Elim Pentecostal group, it is not shy.

Back in Carmarthen Towy Community Church appears to have decided that it would rather not have any publicity after all. Having once again removed an article announcing plans for a Mercy Ministries hostel for young women in Carmarthen, the church's website has gone through further drastic shrinkage, and now consists of little more than a map and contact details, although it says "as you browse our site we hope you'll catch something of our vision for the future and consider getting on board for the ride!"

The church is now about as reclusive as Howard Hughes used to be.

But while the church has been busy scaling back its web presence, its bowling alley has been beefing up its marketing.

It now has a rather scrappy website (here), and some pages on Facebook.

Despite receiving huge amounts of money from the Lottery, the county council and other public sources, not a single word of Welsh appears on either of these sites.

The Lottery's policy on these matters is clear-cut. The opening paragraph of the guidance to anyone seeking funding states:

If you receive funding from the Big Lottery Fund to deliver a project in Wales, you will need to do
so bilingually, in line with Big Lottery Fund’s Welsh Language Scheme.

As we have seen on other occasions, the church does not have a good track record when it comes to keeping promises.

When Carmarthenshire County Council's Census Working Group gets round to looking at what the council could do to help the language, one question it might want to consider is the council's habit of funding and promoting organisations in the county which do not even pay lip service to the language of half its people.

Teifi Valley Lunch Club

Age Cymru is organising a fundraising cheese and wine event on 3 September beginning at 5pm at the Teifi Valley Day Centre next to Maes Llewelyn. Tickets cost £10 and can be purchased by phoning 01239 615777 or 01239 710166.

The aim of the event is to launch a new group called Grŵp Gweithgaredd Cymunedol Dyffryn Teifi (Teifi Valley Community Action Group) which will seek to breathe new life into the centre.

Age Cymru took over the running of the lunch club in 2012 from Carmarthenshire County Council which unceremoniously dumped several other clubs at the same time. Subsequently the council's propaganda machine went to work to hail the dawn of a new era. The clubs under their new management were a roaring success, we were told.

The truth, of course, was rather different. The charities running them are dependent on unpaid volunteers and grants. In the case of the Teifi Valley centre the service has gone from three to two days a week, and the numbers attending have fallen.

The reality is one of sad decline rather than success as the County Council would have it.

The club in Newcastle Emlyn now meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and for the frail and elderly people who attend, it is a lifeline. 

Anyone who lives in a rural area such as this will be aware of elderly people living often very isolated lives and struggling to cope.

The club needs more volunteers and help to make the day centre a more attractive and vibrant place because without it, as the council knows, the result will be more people having to go into residential care.

Please make an effort to go along because one day most of us will be glad to have a service like this.

Modelau Rôl, Trydar a'r Gymraeg

Cyhoeddwyd adroddiad pwysig gan Beaufort Research ar ran S4C, y BBC a'r Llywodraeth yn ystod yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol. Mae Ymchwilio i ddefnydd iaith siaradwyr Cymraeg yn eu bywyd bob dydd ar gael yn fan hyn.

Yn sicr, dylai'r Llywodraeth a chyrff cyhoeddus wneud mwy i sicrhau gwell dyfodol i'r iaith, ond peth braf am y gwaith hwn yw'r casgliad y gallai pob un ohonon ni wneud gwahaniaeth, er enghraifft trwy ein defnydd o'r cyfryngau cymdeithasol, a Twitter a Facebook yn benodol.

Dw i ddim yn ffan mawr o Facebook, rhaid dweud, ond mae gan Twitter nodweddion sydd yn addas i siaradwyr Cymraeg beth bynnag yw eu lefelau rhuglder. Mae'n gyflym ac yn hawdd i'w ddefnyddio; mae'r iaith yn anffurfiol ar y cyfan, ac mae wastad rhywbeth diddorol yn y ffrwd. Cyfnewid newyddion, gwybodaeth, barnau personol a syniadau yw'r nod.

Wrth gwrs, mae Twitter wedi denu cryn dipyn o sylw yn y cyfryngau'n ddiweddar. Cynefin trolls ac eithafwyr seicopathig yw'r argraff a gafodd y mwyafrif nad yw'n gyfarwydd â'r byd bach byrlymus 'ma, siŵr o fod.

Y gwir amdani yw mai dim ond lleiafrif pitw a moronaidd sy'n bygythu nifer o selebs a phobl adnabyddus trwy gyfrwng y Saesneg. Yn hynny o beth, mae Trydar yn union fel y byd go iawn - yn amlach na pheidio, mae eich profiad yn dibynnu ar y bobl dych chi'n cadw cwmni iddyn nhw.

Yn ôl yr ystadegau,10 miliwn o bobl oedd yn trydar ym Mhrydain yn 2012, sy'n cyfateb i ryw 16% o'r boblogaeth, ac 16% oedd y canran o siaradwyr Cymraeg yn adroddiad Beaufort Research sy'n trydar. Yn anffodus, dim ond 8% a wnaeth hynny yn Gymraeg.

Dyna beth mae'r adroddiad yn ei ddweud am broffil y siaradwyr sy'n trydar:

"Mae'r defnydd o Twitter ymhlith siaradwyr Cymraeg yn gogwyddo'n drwm tuag at yr ystod oedran iau - roedd dros chwech o bob deg o'r bobl a ddefnyddiodd Twitter yn ddiweddar yn yr arolwg rhwng 16 - 24 oed (64%), tra bod ychydig dros un o bob pump rhwng 25 - 39 (22%) a dim ond un o bob saith (14%) rhwng 40 - 59 (nid oedd unrhyw un dros 60 oed)."

Ta beth am hynny, mae yna sawl hen foi dros 60 oed sy'n trydar yn gyson. Nid yw Alwyn ap Huw ‏@alwynaphuw nac @ElisThomasD yn eu harddegau, hyd y gwn i.

Cannoedd o unigolion, cyrff cyhoeddus a sefydliadau eraill sy'n trydar yn Gymraeg, ond mae angen mwy:

"Y farn gyffredinol yn yr ymchwil hwn oedd y gallai unigolion proffil uchel chwarae rôl bwysig wrth helpu i godi proffil y defnydd o'r iaith Gymraeg o ddydd i ddydd. Awgrymodd ymchwil gan Thomas a Roberts (2011: 05) fod prinder modelau rôl gwrywaidd sy'n siarad Cymraeg ar gael i fechgyn ifanc yn benodol. O ganlyniad, gallai darparu modelau rôl ieithyddol i siaradwyr Cymraeg ifanc gael effaith bositif ar batrymau iaith y dyfodol, ac ar agweddau siaradwyr Cymraeg ifanc. Gallai safleoedd cyfryngau cymdeithasol fod yn ddull effeithiol o hyrwyddo modelau rôl ieithyddol, gwrywaidd a benywaidd."

Rhoddodd y siaradwyr a gymerodd rhan yn yr ymchwil enghreifftiau o 'selebs' sy'n trydar yn Gymraeg, gan gynnwys George North, Mike Phillips, Jamie Roberts (ond prin iawn yw eu twîts Cymraeg, yn anffodus), Alex Jones a Nigel Owens. Siomedig iawn yw'r ffrydiau nifer o actorion a phobl adnabyddus eraill sy'n ennill bywoliaeth dda diolch i S4C.

O ran y clybiau, mae'r sefyllfa'n waeth o lawer. Yr Elyrch? Popeth yn uniaith Saesneg. Y Scarlets? 89% yn  Saesneg, 7% yn ddwyieithog, a 4% yn uniaith Cymraeg. Y Gweilch? 100% yn uniaith Saesneg. Wrecsam? Saesneg yn unig.

Am ryw reswm, mae hyd yn oed S4C yn trydar yn ddwyieithog. Oes wir angen hyn?

1. Tywydd S4C ‏@TywyddS4C

   Thursday : Unsettled - rain spreading from the west. Heavy rain at times. Lighter rain in the east. Breezy, warm and humid. Highs of 22°C.
2. Tywydd S4C ‏@TywyddS4C 

   Dydd Iau : Ansefydlog - glaw yn symud o'r gorllewin. Glaw trwm ar brydiau. Glaw ysgafnach yn y dwyrain. Eithaf gwyntog, cynnes a thrymaidd.

Cewch chi ddilyn @metoffice neu @bbcweather os 'dych chi am weld y tywydd yn yr iaith fain.


Un o argymhellion Beaufort Research yw:

 Parhau i ddefnyddio dulliau marchnata iaith wedi eu targedu, er enghraifft, ymgyrchoedd sy'n rhoi hyder i siaradwyr Cymraeg llai hyderus i ddefnyddio'r iaith sydd ganddynt.

Yr hyn sydd angen yw ymgyrch genedlaethol i godi proffil y Gymraeg ar Twitter. Felly, George, Mike, Jamie, yr Elyrch, y Scarlets, Wrecsam a'u chwaraewyr, Duffy, Elis James a phawb arall sy'n trydar, beth amdani?

A disgraceful and wonderful addition to the newspaper stands

You've got to hand it to the recently launched Pembrokeshire Herald. Within a couple of weeks it was propelled from backwoods obscurity to international fame thanks to a sabotaged advert for van hire featuring promises of oral sex. The dust had not settled on that before the paper hit the headlines again when the editor resigned following a spat with the proprietor over a column called "Badger Knows Best".

We can safely assume that neither of these events was in the paper's marketing master plan, but they will probably do wonders for the Herald's circulation figures.

Ordinarily the overt intervention of a newspaper publisher in the day-to-day editorial operations of a newspaper would be a cause for concern, although we all know that covert interference goes on, and you can clearly hear the collective tut-tutting of the press equivalent of the Mothers Union at what has happened, because not only did the publisher overrule the editor, but the offending piece attacked another newspaper.

Horror of horrors.

The interesting new service on offer to customers of the van hire company is best left to the reader's imagination, but you can read the Badger Knows Best column here, thanks to the great Robert Lloyd.

In essence what the Badger is saying is that the Western Telegraph chose to lead with a partly manufactured story featuring choreographed indignation about a Twitter bot instead of "the numbers hit by the pernicious 'bedroom tax', the threat to close a County secondary school, the end of the threat of legal action against members of the Community Health Council, the deaths of two young men in Milford Haven, and anything at all critical of the County Council".

To readers of much of the local press over the border in Carmarthenshire that sounds depressingly familiar.

One of the founding principles of the Pembrokeshire Herald is that it will not rely on council advertising, a reliance which has done so much to strangle the free press in Carmarthenshire.

There has been some improvement in the Carmarthen Journal since the departure of the previous editor for the bright lights of Swansea, but the newspaper still lives in fear and trembling of the spin doctors at County Hall. Readers of the James Journal have been told nothing at all about Towy Community Church and its links to Mercy Ministries, for example, and yet over the border in Ceredigion where it is free from the strings that come attached to council advertising in Carmarthenshire, the Journal runs a column written by old sourpuss J.B. Evans who spends most of his time ranting about the local councillors who have done so much to transform Cardigan.

The chances that the James Journal will pick up on rumours that a very senior Carmarthenshire County Councillor has been trying to emulate the chief executive by getting the council to pay for a libel action are also slim to vanishing.

That sort of thing has to be left to the blogs, and in that respect Pembrokeshire is fortunate to be served by the excellent Old Grumpy and upstart Jacob Williams (age before beauty).

The Herald's publisher, Tom Sinclair, says the newspaper will survive (BBC article here), and here's a toast to that.

Buddugoliaeth!

Diolch i Alun Lenny a'i gyd-gynghorwyr, Cymdeithas yr Iaith, Hazel Charles Evans a phawb arall sy wedi gweithredu, mae Marks & Spencer wedi penderfynu codi arwyddion dwyieithog yn ei siopau yng Nghymru.

Ceir erthygl dda yn Y Cymro heddiw (yma).

Things best left unsaid

Carmarthenshire County Council has 74 elected councillors, and so far only a small minority have put pen to paper to write an annual report.

The latest report comes from Peter Cooper (Saron, Lab.). Cllr Cooper is the first to reject the council's template in favour of his own. Nothing wrong with that, except that his report does not include any statistics about meeting attendance.

As you would expect from a backbench councillor, Cllr Cooper's report concentrates on local issues, of which the most prominent is the hugely controversial Tirychen Farm development at Penybanc.

Cllr Cooper says he has opposed this development from the word go. Unfortunately his Labour colleagues on the planning committee voted en bloc to allow it to proceed, although the report does not go into that sort of unnecessary detail.

More Annual Reports Hot off the Press

The technical glitch which was affecting councillors' annual reports on the English part of Carmarthenshire County Council's website has now been fixed, although if I were a councillor I would be very unhappy that these documents are tucked away in such an obscure corner.

We were fortunate that this exercise should have kicked off with two of the most hilarious examples we are likely to see (Pam and Meryl). Whether the rest of the Executive Board and recipients of Special Responsibility Allowances will now follow suit remains to be seen, and it is sadly likely that some of the councillors with potentially the most entertaining accounts will decide that the least said, the better.

Backbench and opposition councillors will by and large have little to say apart from routine ward issues, although it is interesting to note how some individuals have rapidly acquired a clutch of committee memberships, external appointments or representative roles despite an almost total lack of experience.

Lack of experience is not an accusation which can be levelled at Peter Hughes Griffiths (Carmarthen North, Plaid), leader of the opposition on the council. He has produced the sort of report we can expect from the majority of councillors, detailing everyday ward issues. His attendance record last year was 100%.

Sharen Davies (Llwynhendy, Lab.)  is a young councillor first elected in 2012. She holds three committee memberships, and has managed to submit over 800 enquiries to council departments since being elected, including 309 to the Housing Department.

She attended 95% of the council meetings she was supposed to attend.

Keith Davies (Kidwelly, Lab.) is member of the Executive Board with responsibility for Education and Children's Services. He was also briefly Welsh language "champion", and is now the council's Ambassador for the National Eisteddfod.

Let's hope being Eisteddfod Ambassador does not include having to produce any correspondence in Welsh.

In common with Meryl Gravell, Keith Davies produces a long list of achievements in his capacity as Executive Board member for Education and Children's Services, although most of these were initiated long before he took on the role. Not mentioned is his achievement in driving the final nail into the coffin of Ysgol Pantycelyn in Llandovery.

Closer to home Ysgol Gymraeg Gwenllian in Kidwelly would very much like a new school under the Schools for the 21st Century Programme. The Education Department is currently looking into the matter, he says, although he really ought to have told them that they should be pinning their hopes on the Schools for the 22nd Century Programme.

Cllr Davies notched up an attendance record of 82%.

Cheap-shot lies

Roughly three weeks ago Carmarthenshire County Council, or rather someone in the chief executive's department, reacted volcanically to suggestions that the council was planning to privatise parts of Pembrey Country Park and the Millennium Coastal Park:

"This is same old same old rumour and fabricated diatribe that is resurrected every few years that has absolutely no foundation at all. It is a downright and cheap-shot lie that the park is for sale, designed to provoke anxiety."

Roll forward a couple of weeks, and the council publishes the annual report of Cllr Meryl Gravell, Executive Board member responsible for regeneration. This is what she had to say about the council's plans for the two parks:

"We are looking for partners to help execute infrastructure improvements; events and activities; and accommodation solutions in the parks. Almost 30 expressions of interest have been received, and interested parties are invited to visit the parks and discuss their ideas during June, with the intention of making formal tender offers afterwards." [Cneifiwr's translation]

Millennium Coastal Park

Meryl's use of the term "accommodation solutions" is particularly interesting and suitably vague. Are we talking about campsites, caravan parks or hotels?

Responding to Unison's concerns (the full text of the press release which sparked the hysterical outburst can be found below), the council's Head of Leisure said,

"The authority has no intention of selling off the PCP or the MCP, and neither could it."

But as the Unison statement hints, what the council could do and has done repeatedly with favoured partners, is to offer very long leases on land, as often as not on extremely favourable terms.

Leases of 100 or 150 years may not technically be selling off land, but they amount to the same thing, and no private developer is going to invest significant amounts of capital to build e.g. a hotel on a short-term lease.

We are probably in for a long wait to discover the identities of the 30 ventures which expressed interest in grabbing a slice of the action, but it is likely that they will include a generous helping of familiar rugby boardroom figures and other persons "known to the officers". Who knows, perhaps Meryl's favourite former footballer, Robbie Savage, may put in another appearance.

Cefnsidan

Unison Press Release

Keep Pembrey Country Park and our coastline in public hands

Unison Carmarthenshire is growing increasingly concerned by Carmarthenshire County Council’s plans for Pembrey Country Park and the Llanelli coastline (Millennium Coastal path).

In an open invitation to private companies and investors the Council proposes that they could “Take on and improve existing facilities”, “Add holiday accommodation” and offer alternative use for areas – this is not an exhaustive list of proposals, but it does give a clear indication that the Council seeks to privatise the area and turn over a valuable and appreciated local resource to investors, whose sole intention would be to develop the area for their own profit.

While we do not disagree in principle with the development of the area, we do not understand why the council would seek outside investment when it could borrow the money itself and any profits from the area could be distributed back into the local community instead of lining the pockets of big businesses. There is a very real risk of developers being given the land for a pittance, applying for and receiving planning rights, which would boost the value of the land and simply cashing in.

We intend to ask Llanelli Trades Council, Trades unions, community and environmental groups, local councillors and AM’s and MP’s, anti-cuts and action groups, to come together to oppose this sell off and force Carmarthenshire County Council to reverse its decision to turn over vast swathes of our coastline to private developers whose last interest would be the people of Llanelli and Carmarthenshire.

We will be holding Public Meetings after the summer holidays to discuss the current proposals and formulate a strategy to defeat them. We invite all the above and the general public to attend these meetings and to get involved in a campaign to keep Pembrey County park  and our coastline in the public sector -where councillors are democratically accountable for the stewardship of our assets. We urge everyone to get involved to safe our services.

A Tale of Two Councillors

As we know, councillors in Wales are now being encouraged to write an annual report to tell us all what they have been up to. They don't actually have to write a report, but councils have to publish them if they do.

The response in Carmarthenshire has been muted, to put it mildly, but thanks to insomnnia Cneifiwr noticed that the first two (and so far the only two) out of the traps are those veteran Independents, Pam Palmer and Meryl Gravell.

The reports are interesting, at least to sad council watchers, because this is one of the very few occasions when you will get to see them setting out their stalls and showing voters how they see themselves and how they want us to see them.

As is often the case with the council website, the links to their reports do not work, at least on the English pages, but you do get a result if you search in Welsh.

To get to the reports is not exactly easy, but if you want to try, go to the Welsh section of the website, select "Eich Cynghorydd Sir" on the left of the page. On the next page, select "Eich Cynghorydd Sir" (yes again), and pick a name from the first drop-down menu. Choose Pam Palmer, and "Ewch". No, stop tittering at the back. It means "Go".

Up comes a page with Pam's picture on it. Next click on the picture. This brings up a profile, and in the middle of the profile you will find a link to an annual report for 2012/13.

See. It's as easy as that!

Pam's report has been professionally translated, presumably by scribes in County Hall.

She kicks off by explaining at great length why she does not hold surgeries, but is available to anyone who wants her at any time of the day or night (!) before going on to say that she has tried hard to make people aware of the Local Development Plan, and stomped around Abergwili distributing copies of the proposals for new housing developments to people living close to the sites. That really deserves praise.

Much of the rest concerns things like dog muck, buses, speeding drivers, and rubbish. Pam says she has secured regular rubbish collections for Abergwili, and she suggests that she has secured additional funding for the schools in her ward.

Perhaps that's one of the perks of having a councillor on the Executive Board. Lucky old Abergwili.

You will find nothing in the report about Pam's activities as leader of the Independent Party, or what she gets up to as a member of the Executive Board, and there is no mention of the County Museum which she told us she was trying to save before the last council elections.

Her attendance record for council meetings is an impressive 91%.

The picture painted by Pam is of a humble parish councillor who has the police on speed-dial and who frets about dog muck and boy racers. Her role as a political fixer and her membership of the small group which runs the county council do not get a look in.

Meryl's report is very different. If Pam is an old maid bicycling to holy communion through the morning mist, Meryl is a jet-set political colossus. Carmarthenshire's answer to Christine Lagarde, the boss of the IMF; Henry Kissinger in a frock.

Apparently there is no dog muck in Trimsaran. In fact the vast bulk of this fairly lengthy report is not about Trimsaran at all, although it has got some new rubbish bins, but exciting regeneration projects and huge grants dispensed by Meryl across the length and breadth of Carmarthenshire.

She begins by noting that the Ffos Las race course has been very successful, and that she supported Robbie Savage's application to build a hotel there.

While Trimsaran merits a few mentions on one page, five pages are devoted to regeneration schemes and other projects from Laugharne to Llandovery.

Huge sums of money are involved. It's £352 million here and £5,627,30.45p there.

Unlike Pam's elegant Welsh, Meryl's prose is rather odd at times, and occasionally it has a whiff of Google Translate about it, so perhaps this is her own work.


Unison and others will be interested to read what Meryl has to say about the Pembrey Country Park and the Millennium Coastal Park at the end of the report:

"Rydym yn chwilio am bartneriaid i helpu i gyflawni gwelliannau seilwaith; digwyddiadau a gweithgareddau; a datrysiadau llety yn y parciau. Derbyniwyd bron 30 mynegiant o ddiddordeb, a gwahoddir partïon sydd â diddordeb i ymweld â'r parciau a thrafod eu syniadau yn ystod mis Mehefin, gyda'r bwriad o geisio cynigion tendro ffurfiol wedi hynny".

[We are looking for partners to help execute infrastructure improvements; events and activities; and accommodation solutions in the parks. Almost 30 expressions of interest have been received, and interested parties are invited to visit the parks and discuss their ideas during June, with the intention of making formal tender offers afterwards.]

The Millennium Coastal Park will next year host the National Eisteddfod, so let's hope for all concerned that the Towy Community Church on Ice Experience and Ronald MacDonald BigMac Health Spa and Fun Splash don't open their gates until the druids have departed.

Oh, and Meryl was absent from nearly a quarter of council meetings.

A mystery solved

This blog has reported previously (here and here) on the sale of the leasehold on a piece of land designated for use as a car park for the Scarlets stadium to Marstons, the pub and hotel chain. It now transpires that the price was £850,000, and the leasehold is understood to be 100 years.

The land in question is part of 17 acres leased by Camarthenshire County Council to the Scarlets for 150 years (we can't accuse the council of short-term thinking, can we?) for a peppercorn rent.

At a meeting of the county council in November 2007 the council heard that the entire 17 acre site was valued at just £210,000, thanks largely to its planning designation for recreational use. The chief executive acknowledged that the other half of the site, which had planning for retail, was worth an estimated £14 million.

Not bad, you might think, for a small parcel of land to go for four times the value of the much larger site of which it was part, but of course part of the deal involved changing the planning status by the ever obliging county council, and as previously hinted by the council, the proceeds have been split between the club and the council.

The council says that it is perfectly normal for a freeholder and leaseholder to share in the proceeds of such sales, although normally leaseholders in such situations will have actually bought their leases to begin with.

The Scarlets, on the other hand, were effectively gifted the land after council taxpayers had thoughtfully spent a lot of money on making the site suitable for development, and the fact that the club has sold it suggests that it was surplus to requirements anyway.

It is also understood that a significant chunk of the council's £425,000 share of the proceeds has been swallowed up by a very hefty lawyer's bill.

All of which raises the question whether the council, as it is legally supposed to do, has acted as a responsible steward of public money and had council taxpayers' interests uppermost in its mind, or whether it has hit on a new way of subsidising the club at everyone else's expense.

For the last couple of years the club has made mention in its annual reports of plans to sell a significant asset, without specifying what that asset might be. It looks as though we now know.

Whatever the Scarlet's net share of the proceeds is after deduction of costs, it will make barely any difference to the gaping hole in the club's finances, although it may, just, enable it to report an improvement in results for the last financial year thanks to this extraordinary item.

Perhaps the sale of Car Park A will pave the way for more sell-offs as that original recreational designation is magically transformed into something more commercially attractive.

Trebles all round for the legal fraternity and the men in suits in the Scarlets boardroom, perhaps, but it looks as though council taxpayers will have to make do with a bitter lemon.

Population statistics and Local Development Plans - Updated

Update

In response to criticism the Council has backed down and agreed to extend the consultation period until 11 October (announcement here).

____________________________

Twitter is not all maniacs and trolls, despite what we keep being told. Here's one of the BBC's finest from earlier this morning:


 Tomos Livingstone ‏@TomosL 

Miniscule year-on-year increase in population of Wales, say @statisticsONS, from 3.063m to 3.074m.

This once again raises the question why we are all about to be lumbered with Local Development Plans which are based on the premise of sharp rises in both the population and the number of households.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Carmarthenshire County Council has just upped its allocations for new houses by 7% to 16,240, and in true County Hall style has put the latest version of the plan out to public consultation at one of its favourite times of year - bang in the middle of the summer holidays.

The other preferred consultation period being Christmas.

Canllawiau Kafka-aidd

Diweddariad

Mae'r Cyngor wedi ymestyn y cyfnod ymgynghori tan 11eg Hydref.

___________________________

Mae Cyngor Sir Caerfyrddin newydd gyhoeddi canllawiau cynllunio atodol drafft i esbonio sut yn union y bydd y Cyngor yn ystyried effaith datblygiadau preswyl dan y Cynllun Datblygu Lleol ar y Gymraeg fel iaith gymunedol.

Yr ateb yw, mewn brawddeg, na fydd yr awdurdod yn ystyried yr effaith ar unrhyw gymuned o ran y 16,240 o "unedau preswyl" newydd y mae'r Cynllun Datblygu yn eu cynnig yn Sir Gaerfyrddin erbyn 2021, am fod y Cyngor yn mynnu bod yr effaith eisoes wedi cael ei hystyried wrth iddo lunio'r cynllun.

Dim ond yn achos rhai safleoedd newydd na chafodd eu neilltuo yn y Cynllun gwreiddiol y bydd angen asesu'r effaith ieithyddol yn fanwl.

Mae hyn yn codi'r cwestiwn i ba raddau mae'r Cyngor wedi asesu effaith y datblygiadau arfaethedig ar bob cymuned unigol. Dim o gwbl yw'r ateb, ond bydd rhaid i ni droi at Papur Pwnc Yr Iaith Gymraeg gyntaf.

Craidd y papur pwnc hwn yw methodoleg ddiffygiol dogfen arall - Cynllunio a’r Iaith Gymraeg: Y Ffordd Ymlaen - sydd yn seiliedig ar 16 cwestiwn.

Mae'n rhaid gofyn pa mor berthnasol i'r iaith yw cwestiynau megis y rhain:

Ydy’r Cynllun Datblygu Lleol yn debygol o gael effaith ar iechyd pobl leol?

Ateb: Gwelliant

Ydy’r Cynllun Datblygu Lleol yn debygol o effeithio ar y risg o fwy o droseddu neu drais yn
y gymuned? A allai gynyddu’r risg o droseddu neu drais, gan wneud y gymuned yn lle llai
dymunol i fyw ynddo felly?

Ateb: Gwelliant

Ydy’r Cynllun Datblygu Lleol yn debygol o gael effaith ar fwynderau’r Sir? A allai arwain at
ddirywiad yn ansawdd yr amgylchedd, gan wneud y gymuned yn lle llai dymunol i fyw
ynddo felly?

Ateb: Gwelliant

Mae iechyd, yr amgylchedd a throseddu'n ffactorau sy'n bwysig i bawb, beth bynnag yw'r iaith.

O'r 16 cwestiwn, "Gwelliant" yw'r ateb i 6 ohonynt, tra mai "Effaith Niwtral" yw'r casgliad yn achos chwech arall. "Ansicr" yw'r ateb i'r gweddill. Mae'r gair "negyddol" yn rhy negyddol, mae'n debyg.

Y cwestiynau pwysicaf yn y cyd-destun hwn yw:

Ydy’r Cynllun Datblygu Lleol yn debygol o arwain at gynnydd / gostyngiad yn y boblogaeth
a allai:

•  Effeithio ar y cydbwysedd rhwng siaradwyr Cymraeg / Saesneg (mewn ffordd

           negyddol neu gadarnhaol); neu

•  Arwain at ostyngiad absoliwt neu gyfraneddol yn y nifer o siaradwyr Cymraeg?

Ateb: Ansicr

Ydy’r Cynllun Datblygu Lleol yn debygol o arwain at fwy o fewnfudo neu allfudo?

Ateb: Ansicr

A oes gan y Cynllun Datblygu Lleol botensial i arwain at densiynau cymdeithasol,
gwrthdaro neu raniadau difrifol o fewn y gymuned Gymraeg ei hiaith?


Ateb: Ansicr

Ac dyna ni. Gan mai'r mwyafrif o'r atebion yn gadarnhaol neu'n niwtral, fe fydd popeth yn iawn, ac ni fydd modd i rywun wrthwynebu datblygiad ar sail ei effaith ar yr iaith.

Gall unrhywun sydd â diddordeb yn y peth ddweud ei ddweud mewn ymgynghoriad erbyn 13eg Medi (manylion yma).

Dechreuodd y cyfnod ymgynghori ar 31ain Gorffennaf, cyfnod sy'n cyd-daro â'r Brifwyl a'r gwyliau haf, ac mae'n debyg fod y Cyngor am ddod â'r peth i'r gwely cyn i Weithgor y Cyfriad gael cyfle i'w drafod a chyn i'r Llywodraeth gyhoeddi'r TAN20 newydd.

Felly brysiwch, brysiwch bobol!

Ôl-nodyn

Mae Grŵp Plaid Cymru ar y Cyngor wedi cysylltu â'r Carmarthen Journal i dynnu sylw at eu galwad am ymestyn cyfnod ymgynghorol yr addasiadau i'r Cynllun Datblygu a'r canllawiau:

"Plaid Cymru is demanding that the public consultation period into key planning policy and development proposals which will shape the future of Carmarthenshire should be extended. Plaid say it’s totally unacceptable that consultation on such important matters should be held over the summer holidays, and accuse the council of ‘sharp practice’.

 “These are crucially important matters, which will effect communities across Carmarthenshire,” said Cllr Alun Lenny. “The LDP itself will determine what kind of county we’ll be living in by 2021, and these proposed amendments to development sites and planning policies are a key part of the process. They touch on issues like the future of the Welsh language and affordable housing – issues which are of great importance to thousands of our people. It is totally unacceptable that the consultation process into such an important document should be held over the summer holidays, when many people are away. One suspects that this is being done to minimise public response. If so, it is very sharp practice.

“There was cross-party outrage in County Hall when Western Power announced that its public consultation into the Brechfa Forest grid connection plans would finish at the end of August. As a result, the company has extended the consultation period until almost the end of September.  But now we have the council’s administration pulling exactly the same stunt – on an even more important matter.”

Cllr Peter Hughes Griffiths pointed out that town and community councils don’t sit during August and it will be well into September before most of them next meet. “The fair course of action would be to extend the consultation period until early Autumn, in order to give the public, community councils and other interested parties a proper chance to study the proposals and to respond, if they so wish,” he said.

 Cllr Hughes Griffiths has written to council leaders asking them to consider extending the consultation period until October 5th".