Cofnod Datgeliadau

Defnyddiwch y rhan hon o'r wefan i weld Bas Data cofnod datgeliadau'r Awdurdod.

Cwestiwn

Could I please access any meeting minutes (incl handwritten), notes (incl. handwritten), or emails (and their attachments) relating to "Meetings (via Teams) have been held on the 4th and 23rd September 2025 and 13th October 2025 culminating in the preparation of this document." between Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, Natural Resources Wales, and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. To aid in locating the information, the meeting related to a S73 application in the planning department concerning the Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine. I should think David Cross is a good starting point in your efforts to retrieve the requested information. As a substantive meeting on a live application, if there were again no meeting minutes or notes made or shared with MTCBC, we would pursue this further as it would mark a concerning pattern of departure from standard practice - particularly where this degree of closed meetings with an applicant may risk being construed as pre-determination. As always, we expect a refusal based on cost to be accompanied by a detailed breakdown of how the cost cap would have been necessarily exceeded along with suggestions of how we might rephrase the question to remain within the cost cap. We expect any Council emails to have only the named parts redacted, and redaction we consider excessive will be challenged. There is an obvious and strong public interest in the transparency with which MTCBC is conducting its engagement with the applicant on such a controversial matter that has a huge impact on thousands of people. We expect the Council to give great weight to this when judging what should be redacted.

Ateb

4 September Teams Meeting This meeting was held with Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd to review comments previously made by the Council’s ecologist, which are already published online. There was no formal agenda, and no new information was presented. The Council did not produce or retain any minutes or notes of this meeting. Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd indicated they would clarify the potential use of existing buildings by bats and address some of the ecologist’s points through conditions (e.g., management plans). These details are included in the Supplementary Information published online. 23 September Teams Meeting This meeting was arranged by the Council primarily to allow Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd to seek clarification from Natural Resources Wales regarding their published advice on the application. Attached is the agenda provided by Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, outlining what they consider to be outstanding environmental issues. The meeting was for the benefit of Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, and no new information relating to the application was provided. Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd did give an update on additional reports/information to be submitted. The Council did not produce any notes or minutes of this meeting. 13 October Teams Meeting This meeting was initially intended to replace the 23 September meeting but became a follow-up session arranged by the Council to allow Natural Resources Wales and Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd to raise any further questions. No new issues or information regarding the application were discussed. The Council did not produce any minutes or notes of this meeting.