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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
Resolved: subject to the above observations and the provision of the requested information, to acknowledge the work undertaken in relation to the development of the Healthy Travel Charter (HTC), its alignment with the Public Services Board’s objectives, along with the progress achieved to date with its implementation in both Conwy and Denbighshire.
Resolved: subject to the above observations, to receive the information provided by representatives from Community and Voluntary Support Conwy and Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council on their contribution to the work of the Conwy and Denbighshire Public Services Board, along with the benefits to their organisations of being invited participants on the Public Services Board.
Apologies for absence were received from Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee (JOSC) member Councillor Pauline Edwards, and from Councillors Jason McLellan (Leader of Denbighshire County Council) and Julie Fallon (Leader of Conwy County Borough Council) the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Public Services Board (PSB), both of whom had long standing diary commitments.
The Chair, Councillor Gareth Sandilands declared a personal interest in business item 6 in his capacity as a Board Member of Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council (DVSC). Councillor Bernice McLoughlin declared a personal interest in business item 6 in her capacity as a non-voting Conwy County Borough Council representative on the board of Community Voluntary Support Conwy (CVSC).
No items of an urgent nature had been drawn to the Chair or the Scrutiny Officers’ attention prior to the commencement of the meeting.
The minutes of the Conwy and Denbighshire Public Services Board (PSB) Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee (JOSC) meeting held on 10 October 2025 were submitted for approval. Whilst the meeting was not quorate when the minutes were first reviewed, once the quorum threshold was reached, the Committee: Resolved: that the minutes of the Conwy and Denbighshire Public Services Board Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 10 October 2025 be approved as a true and accurate record of the proceedings. No matters were raised in relation to the contents of the minutes.
Decision as recorded
Resolved: subject to the above observations and the provision of the requested information, to acknowledge the work undertaken in relation to the development of the Healthy Travel Charter (HTC), its alignment with the Public Services Board’s objectives, along with the progress achieved to date with its implementation in both Conwy and Denbighshire.
The Chair welcomed Louise Woodfine, Public Health Consultant (Health Improvement) from Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) to the meeting to provide Committee members with an overview on the development of the Healthy Travel Charter (HTC), its alignment with the PSB’s objectives, and the progress achieved to date with its implementation in both Conwy and Denbighshire. By means of a presentation the BCUHB representative informed members that the purpose of the HTC was to promote sustainable travel which in turn would improve community health and reduce the impact of current travel choices on the environment. The aim of the Charter was to foster collaboration across public service organisations over a period of two years, and to commit to meaningful travel changes. The Charter would act as a catalyst for innovation and shared learning whilst aligning with national net-zero targets. Transportation, public health, and climate resilience were all interconnected and consequently regarded as key components for regional service-delivery transformation. The HTC’s development stemmed from the Welsh Government’s Transport Strategy for Wales, launched in 2021. Since then, organisations such as Public Health Wales (PHW), North Wales Regional Partnership Board and the PSB had been engaged and involved with the planning for its delivery on a regional and sub-regional basis. Members were advised that the HTC was needed due to the increase in car usage during the last 25 years, which had led to a decrease in physical activity and an in increase in obesity levels, air pollution, social isolation resulting in worsening health inequalities, all of which tended to disproportionately affect deprived communities. The HTC was a collaborative effort to promote cleaner, greener and fairer communities by encouraging sustainable travel borne out of the need to address the impact of climate change and to reduce health inequalities across the region. The health and environmental benefits of active travel options, such as walking and cycling, were extensively evidenced. It was also known that approximately 75% of households in North Wales owned one or more cars and that 58% of car journeys were for distances under 5 miles. Organisations who signed up to the HTC would be expected to: · promote active travel measures (cycle to work schemes, secure bike storage and provide facilities that encouraged active commuting). · demonstrate organisational leadership through the establishment of champions to promote and drive sustainable travel initiatives throughout their organisation. · devise and establish measurable outcomes to ensure accountability and demonstrate progress against regional goals; and · foster a commitment to realise a cultural shift that would normalise sustainable travel, emission reduction, and improve staff wellbeing. From the PSB’s perspective the HTC aligned with its objectives relating to: · supporting wellbeing for the short, medium, and long-term (through promoting healthier lifestyles, pollution reduction, and community resilience); · fostering economic development in the medium-term (workforce development in sustainable travel skills and low carbon green industries); and · advancing equality goals in the short, medium, and long-term (through the removal of barriers for protected groups, reducing disproportionate impact on those experiencing deprivation by ensuring fair access to services and opportunities across communities). At present progress across North Wales in implementing the HTC’s objectives was varied. Gwynedd and Anglesey were currently leading the way with well-established innovative projects and youth engagement shaping the regional travel plan. Meanwhile Wrexham and Flintshire were prioritising the HTC within their workforce with a view to improving staff wellbeing. In the Conwy and Denbighshire PSB area a sub-group, consisting of representatives from both local authorities, North Wales Housing Association (NWHA), Wales Probation Service’s Reducing Reoffending Team, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and North Wales Fire and Rescue Service (NWFRS), were currently meeting on a quarterly basis to coordinate efforts for community improvement. Both Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council (DVSC) and Community and Voluntary Support Conwy (CVSC) had engaged with the sub-group. To date NRW, NWFRS, NWHA and BCUHB had all signed the HTC pledge and were progressing with its implementation within their organisations, whilst it was anticipated that the Probation Service would sign up to the Charter in the near future. It was emphasised that the objective of the HTC was to consolidate all the work already taking place within each organisation, not to add to each organisation’s workload. The HTC work was currently being led by the WG, Public Health Wales (PHW) and Transport for Wales (TfW), with operational support being provided by Walk, Wheel, Cycle Trust (formerly Sustrans). The Health Board’s role in North Wales was merely to facilitate the bringing of partner organisations together and to learn from each other in a bid to move the HTC’s objectives forward across the region. Organisations when signing the HTC ‘Commitment Pledge’ were undertaking to working together across North Wales to commit to the Healthy Travel Charter over a period of two years, during which they would work towards delivering the 15 actions within the Charter, each of which contributed to promoting and enabling healthy, sustainable travel. In doing so each organisation pledged to support staff, volunteers, and the public to make small, achievable changes that could have a meaningful impact on their health and well-being. Responding to members’ questions the BCUHB and local authority representatives: · advised that work was currently underway on a national basis with passenger transport companies in relation to achieving the HTC’s objectives. The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) was also undertaking work in relation to the HTC and had developed resources to support local authorities in their roles as local influencers and facilitators of healthy sustainable travel. · confirmed that each organisation that signed up to the Charter would be expected to report specific data sets and define the outcomes they proposed to deliver during the two-year period. As neither Conwy nor Denbighshire councils had yet signed the HTC pledge no data sets were yet available to publish. · advised that PHW were currently looking at meaningful performance measures that would effectively measure the impact of organisations’ actions to deliver the HTC. · agreed that it would not be possible for all public organisations’ employees to deliver their services by using either public transport or active travel methods. Certain roles, such as health and social care workers, domiciliary care staff etc. would need to use motor vehicles in order to deliver services as and when they were required. Similarly, disabled people would need access to vehicles to enable them to live their daily lives. The aim was not to move away from vehicle use completely, but to reduce usage wherever possible. · agreed that certain areas of local authority commissioned transport, for example school transport, would require innovative solutions in order to reduce journey numbers and carbon-emissions; · confirmed that DCC officers were currently in discussion with various services on what outcomes they could be working towards with a view to the Council committing itself to the HTC. Once those discussions were concluded the intention was, via the Lead Member Delegated Decision process, for the Council to formally sign up to the HTC. · agreed to make further enquiries and provide information in relation to any work that had been undertaken to expand the aspirations of the HTC to cover rural communities, having regard to the specific challenges faced in rural areas e.g. hospital transport, the road network being extremely busy during weekends and holiday periods, and school transport pressures etc. At the conclusion of the discussion the Chair thanked the BCUHB representative for her informative presentation and all officers for responding to members’ questions. The Committee: Resolved: subject to the above observations and the provision of the requested information, to acknowledge the work undertaken in relation to the development of the Healthy Travel Charter (HTC), its alignment with the Public Services Board’s objectives, along with the progress achieved to date with its implementation in both Conwy and Denbighshire.
Decision as recorded
Resolved: subject to the above observations, to receive the information provided by representatives from Community and Voluntary Support Conwy and Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council on their contribution to the work of the Conwy and Denbighshire Public Services Board, along with the benefits to their organisations of being invited participants on the Public Services Board.
The Chair welcomed Elgan Owen (Chief Officer, Community Voluntary Support Conwy (CVSC)) and Tom Barham (Chief Officer, Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council (DVSC)) to the meeting to discuss with members the Voluntary Services Councils’ (VSCs) contribution and commitment to the work of the PSB, and the benefits to their organisations of being invited participants on the PSB. By means of a presentation the Chief Officers provided the Committee with an overview of the roles of the voluntary services councils. Since devolution the voluntary services councils in Wales had been extremely active in providing support and advice to community and voluntary organisations across the country and signposting them to potential funding sources to realise their ambitions. Both CVSC and DVSC worked closely with residents, volunteers, and voluntary groups to identify what was important to them with a view to strengthening and building resilience within those groups to make them sustainable for the longer term. VSCs were focussed on: · Enabling and supporting volunteers and voluntary groups to achieve their intended goals · Acting as a catalyst to source funding and appropriate support; and · Engaging and influencing on all levels As part of their work to provide effective support to third sector organisations both VSCs worked closely with key partners across the voluntary and public sectors, as well as private businesses and research and funding bodies. The overall aim was to build resilience within the voluntary sector for the future and empower individual organisations going forward. Under the auspices of Third Sector Support Wales (TSSW) an infrastructure had been established based on four pillars of activity. This infrastructure had received WG recognition and all VSCs and their national support body, Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) provided services based on the four pillars of: · Volunteering · Good governance · Sustainable funding (e.g. Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF), Renewable Energy Funding streams etc.); and · Engagement and influencing (including lobbying politicians on all levels) DVSC’s Chief Officer informed the Committee that in Denbighshire a third sector influencing group had been established. Its purpose was to bring small voluntary organisations together to share best practice based on their experiences, but also to collectively work together to try and influence larger organisations’ decisions and priorities. This approach had the potential to have a major impact on the well-being of the area. CVSC’s Chief Officer advised that through raising the voluntary sector’s profile and highlighting the value of its work within communities VSCs aimed to strengthen the social capital and resilience of the third sector. VSCs were able to signpost individuals and organisations to useful resources and platforms such as: · Funding Wales · Knowledge Hub · Volunteering Wales all of which contained a wealth of invaluable information for community and voluntary organisations. In recent years both CVSC and DVSC had supported a wide range of voluntary and community-based organisations within Conwy and Denbighshire. As a result, CVSC had been able to support organisations to draw-down funding of approximately £2.6m for projects within Conwy County Borough Council’s area, whilst DVSC had supported organisations in the Denbighshire area to realise circa £1.4m in grant-funding. Both CVSC and DVSC had a common interest in the wellbeing of residents and communities. As a result, both were heavily involved with the Health and Wellbeing Network which was supported by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. Through this Network the VSCs were able to contribute towards the development of local delivery models and create effective connections between community based voluntary organisations and the Health Board. In their role as ‘invited participants’ on the PSB the Voluntary Services Councils were able to advocate on behalf of people and communities, highlighting their priorities and promoting the health and wellbeing needs of residents and specific groups. As advocates for residents, communities, and the voluntary sector VSCs felt they had an opportunity to directly influence the decisions of the PSB, and indirectly the decision of PSB partner organisations. Nevertheless, the VSCs were of the view that, despite their limited capacity, they could contribute more in future if they were invited to do so, particularly around supporting the PSB to communicate and engage with hard-to-reach groups and gaining information from individuals and groups on ‘lived experiences’ of policy changes, operational decisions etc. In response to members’ questions both VSC representatives: · suggested that the PSB could utilise both CVSC and DVSC as a conduit for undertaking community case studies and involve them in the community narratives work, as they felt they could add value to these processes by adding a ‘lived experience’ aspect to them. This would provide a more meaningful and rounded account of the impact of the PSB’s work for inclusion in the Board’s Annual Report etc. · advised that, should the PSB wish, it could utilise the VSCs’ representatives on the Board to gather feedback on the impact of policy and service‑delivery decisions relating to statutory services on communities and the voluntary sector, and vice versa. · suggested that the PSB may wish to involve the Voluntary Services Councils’ representatives in the development of the next Well‑being Assessment, as a means of supporting a more holistic evaluation. Local authority officers acknowledged that voluntary and not-for-profit organisations did have significant leverage powers to draw-down substantial amounts of grant funding that could support the delivery of much needed community and public realm projects going forward. Further work was required with respect of exploring the concept and potential for voluntary sector organisations to manage funds to deliver public projects. Prior to bringing the discussion to a close the Chair thanked both VSC representatives for attending, providing the presentation and for answering members’ questions. He also conveyed the Committee’s good wishes to the Chief Officer of DVSC on his forthcoming retirement, thanking him for his dedicated service to the organisation and the county’s communities. Members: Resolved: subject to the above observations, to receive the information provided by representatives from Community and Voluntary Support Conwy and Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council on their contribution to the work of the Conwy and Denbighshire Public Services Board, along with the benefits to their organisations of being invited participants on the Public Services Board.
In the absence of the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Public Services Board (PSB) CCBC’s Strategy, Performance and Engagement Manager introduced the Draft Conwy and Denbighshire PSB Annual Report 2025/26 (previously circulated) to the Committee. During his introduction he explained that the purpose of the report was to provide members with an overview and update on the PSB’s progress in delivering its Well-being Plan during 2025/26. It also provided the Committee with an opportunity to scrutinise the PSB’s performance in delivering its priorities, offer constructive feedback to aid further improvement, as well as to suggest amendments or additions for inclusion in the final version of the report. Whilst the report was succinct it did detail the PSB’s activities and achievements during the year. It also outlined other key areas of work to which the PSB had contributed, what the Board had learned from those experiences and how it proposed to utilise the new relationships and networks formed to address future challenges, particularly in the regional context of climate change and food security. Responding to members’ questions officers: · confirmed that the PSB was an extremely useful and effective forum for sharing best practice and training opportunities between member organisations. Whilst the PSB could not dictate to partner organisations what training they required to provide to elected members, the Chief Executives of both local authorities were members of the PSB and could therefore report back to their respective authorities suggesting training activities that may benefit their elected members. To illustrate this, he advised that CCBC was currently focussing on Emergency Planning activities whilst the PSB itself was working with the Equality Network to explore how it could ensure that the Board’s work and objectives were compliant with equality and diversity principles. · advised that the Health Board had approached the PSB with a request for it to be involved with the Bevan Exemplar Study in Conwy East. This work focussed on community engagement work in the Kinmel Bay and Towyn areas. The benefit of its involvement with this work was that the PSB had learned a number of lessons in relation to co-production, compilation of community narratives, as well as identifying potential barriers to progress with marginalised cohorts. These learning points were currently being analysed with a view to refining the PSB’s practices in readiness for undertaking its next Wellbeing Assessment, which was imminent. · emphasised that the funding available for PSBs was minimal. For the three PSBs which operated in North Wales only circa £100K was available for the procurement of research work etc. However, the Conwy and Denbighshire PSB could work with local authority funding teams if required with a view to sourcing external funding for specific work. At the conclusion of the discussion members thanked officers for the report and the answers provided to the questions raised: Members: Recommended: subject to the above observations, to acknowledge the Public Services Board’s progress to date in delivering its Well-being Plan for the period 2023/28, as detailed in its Annual Report for 2025/26.
Denbighshire’s Scrutiny Coordinator introduced the report (previously circulated) which presented members with the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s draft forward work programme. During her introduction she explained that in accordance with the JOSC’s decision at its meeting in October 2025 a representative from North Wales Police (NWP) had been invited to attend the October 2026 meeting for the standing item on ‘Contribution of PSB Partners to the Work of the PSB and the Benefits of the PSB to Partners’. Confirmation had been received that a NWP representative would be available to attend the October meeting for this discussion. Also, listed for submission to the meeting on 9 October 2026 was the final approved version of the PSB’s Annual Report for 2025/26. Officers suggested that, as it was a requirement for the JOSC to be consulted during the preparation of the Well-being Assessment, it would be prudent for the JOSC at its next meeting to consider the draft Well-being Assessment prior to public consultation. The meeting’s timing in early October 2026 could prove challenging in terms of the final draft Assessment being available. If the date for the meeting could not be changed to a mutually convenient date later in the month or in early November, as a minimum the headline conclusions of the Well-being Assessment could be presented for scrutiny. Another potential topic that may benefit from the JOSC’s input later in the year would be the terms of reference for the Agri-Food System Security Working Group. In response to an enquiry from a member on whether the JOSC should scrutinise the impact of the implementation of the Visitor Levy in both Conwy and Denbighshire, officers advised that this particular subject would be a topic for each individual local authority to scrutinise rather than the JOSC, as the powers relating to the levying of the tax and its utilisation would be determined by the local authorities. Whilst the PSB’s Well-being Plan did contain a theme relating to a flourishing economy the Board would not be directly involved with its implementation or levying the tax. Members: Recommended: subject to the above - (i) to confirm the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s forward work programme as drafted, subject to enquiries being made on the feasibility of rescheduling the October 2026 meeting to late October or early November with a view to accommodating the draft Well-being Assessment for consideration prior to public consultation; (ii) if it did not prove possible to reschedule the meeting to allow the Committee to receive the final draft Well‑being Assessment, then an item be included on the October agenda to review progress on the development of the draft Assessment, including the emerging headline conclusions; and (iii) request that a report on the terms of reference of the Agri-Food System Security Working Group be added to the Committee’s forward work programme following consultation with officers on the most appropriate time for its submission.
The following sets of minutes had been submitted for members’ information: (i) Minutes of the Public Services Board meeting held on 24 September 2025; and (ii) Minutes of the Public Services Board meeting held on 10 December 2025 The information contained in the minutes were noted.
The following document was submitted for members’ information: (i) The Conwy and Denbighshire Public Services Board’s Forward Work Programme The information was noted. Meeting concluded at 11.35am
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