The Consultation, Engagement and Equalities manager presented a report which updated the Committee on the development of the BCBC draft 5 year promotion strategy from 2021 – 2026.

She explained that the Welsh Language Standards placed a requirement on the council to produce a Five year Welsh Language Promotion Strategy. This was the Councils second strategy aimed to build on progress made over the last five years. She highlighted the Welsh Language Standards section at 3.2 of the report and the six objectives of focus that were part of the first strategy, this was listed at 3.3 of the report.

The Consultation, Engagement and Equalities manager explained that in devising this strategy, consideration had been given to the policy context and created a language profile of Bridgend County. Six overarching objectives have been developed and used information gathered from the consultation to work with services across the council to develop an action plan to achieve these aims. The Draft five-year Welsh Language Strategy was at Appendix one of the report.

The Consultation, Engagement and Equalities Manager explained that A public consultation had been carried out, where key stakeholders including Welsh-medium schools in the county borough, and members of the WESP forum were engaged. The consultation received a total of 439 completions, and the responses were used to develop the Five-year Welsh Language Strategy 2021- 2026 action plan. This meant that our strategy used established national criteria but localises the information and targets. Details of the consultation were at Appendix two of the report.

The Consultation, Engagement and Equalities Manager stated that following the information acquired from the consultation and local and national developments, the following overarching objectives have been developed:

• Promote the use of the Welsh Language within the workforce

• Increase awareness of the Welsh Language and opportunities to use Welsh within Bridgend County Borough Council

• Support and promote the Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP)

• Promote the use of Welsh Language and culture in town centre businesses and charities

• Participation and engagement

• Implement the new early years settings in Bridgend County Borough

Further details of these objectives were at 4.5 of the report.

She added that in addition to these objectives, a target had been set to increase the Welsh speaking population of Bridgend, in line with the Welsh Government 2050 target of one million Welsh speakers. The Welsh Government’s strategy, Cymraeg 2050: A million Welsh speakers, notes the Government’s ambition of reaching a million Welsh speakers by 2050. She provided statistics of the projected number of Welsh speakers by 2050 as well as the current Welsh speakers identified in the consultation. Figures of these were at 4.6 and 4.7 of the report.

The Consultation, Engagement and Equalities Manager explained that the survey responses received and the feedback gained was used to support the final development of the Draft five-year Welsh Language Strategy. A detailed action plan will now be developed during July and August 2021. The action plan will outline the specific tasks and actions to be undertaken over the next five years and will be outcome focused.

A Member was pleased with the report and positive engagement with the consultation. He added that the announcement from the Cabinet Member on developing Welsh medium primary education was very pleasing to see and believed that this would contribute to the 2050 goal. He added that some members of the public had issues with signage not being bilingual. He asked that we ensured future signage created was bilingual.

The Chairperson was pleased that we were going to promote the Welsh language within town centre and businesses and it was important to encourage the use of Welsh language outside of schools.

The Cabinet Member Education and Regeneration agreed with the points made about using the Welsh language outside of schools and ensuring that it was practiced in all settings. He said that regular use of the language would also ensure that people did not forget how to use it from inactivity and to achieve the 2050 goal we cannot just focus on schools.

The Leader added that the proportion of Welsh speakers in the Bridgend area differed greatly and that the number of Welsh speakers in the highest speaking area was almost double that of the lowest speaking area. He believed that this needed to be considered when making plans on increasing the usage of the Welsh language in Bridgend.

RESOLVED: That Cabinet Committee Equalities approved the draft Five-year Welsh Language Promotion Strategy and endorsed the development of the action plan.