English: I thank Carolyn Thomas for raising that point. I think it's worth reminding ourselves why the funding floor was originally devised. It was always, really, intended to be a temporary measure to mitigate the impact of unmanageable negative changes in authority funding in individual years and not to reduce the range of allocation between authorities. We have worked hard to improve the amount of funding provided directly to local authorities. As I mentioned earlier, we've done so by allocating upfront, at the provisional stage, to give local authorities the potential to plan across the full three years. Obviously, in preparing the final settlement, I'll have to give very good consideration to the consultation process. At the moment, it is a provisional settlement and the consultation closes on 8 February, so I would have to consider the responses to that. If authorities do collectively request a funding floor this year, then, obviously, it would have to be a redistributed floor, so that's where funding would come from other authorities above the chosen floor. I've got the finance sub-group meeting on 9 February, and I'll certainly have those discussions with council leaders again to explore whether they want to review the funding formula. That's something that we've said that we are open to doing, but it would have to come as a request from local government. Of course, every local authority will have different ideas as to how things should work and which things should be given greater weight. You know, we've got deprivation and sparsity needing to be taken into account in future, and, obviously, we'd want to keep those very much in there. But I will have that discussion again with colleagues on 9 February to explore their views. And, Llywydd, Carolyn Thomas never misses an opportunity to raise road maintenance with me.
Welsh: Diolch i Carolyn Thomas am godi'r pwynt hwn. Credaf ei bod yn werth atgoffa ein hunain pam y dyfeisiwyd cyllid gwaelodol yn wreiddiol. Y bwriad bob amser oedd iddo fod yn fesur dros dro i liniaru effaith newidiadau negyddol na ellid eu rheoli yng nghyllid awdurdodau mewn blynyddoedd unigol ac nid i leihau ystod y dyraniad rhwng awdurdodau. Rydym wedi gweithio'n galed i wella swm y cyllid a ddarperir yn uniongyrchol i awdurdodau lleol. Fel y soniais yn gynharach, rydym wedi gwneud hynny drwy ddyrannu ymlaen llaw, ar y cam dros dro, i roi gallu i awdurdodau lleol gynllunio ar gyfer y cyfnod llawn o dair blynedd. Yn amlwg, wrth baratoi'r setliad terfynol, bydd yn rhaid imi roi ystyriaeth drylwyr i'r broses ymgynghori. Ar hyn o bryd, mae'n setliad dros dro a daw'r ymgynghoriad i ben ar 8 Chwefror, felly byddai'n rhaid imi ystyried yr ymatebion i hwnnw. Os yw awdurdodau'n gofyn ar y cyd am gyllid gwaelodol eleni, yna, yn amlwg, byddai'n rhaid iddo fod yn gyllid gwaelodol wedi'i ailddosbarthu, lle byddai'r cyllid yn dod gan awdurdodau eraill uwchlaw'r cyllid gwaelodol a ddewisir. Mae gennyf gyfarfod o'r is-grŵp cyllid ar 9 Chwefror, a byddaf yn sicr yn cael y trafodaethau hynny gydag arweinwyr cynghorau eto i archwilio a ydynt yn dymuno adolygu'r fformiwla ariannu. Mae hynny'n rhywbeth rydym wedi dweud ein bod yn agored i'w wneud, ond byddai'n rhaid iddo ddod fel cais gan lywodraeth leol. Wrth gwrs, bydd gan bob awdurdod lleol syniadau gwahanol ynglŷn â sut y dylai pethau weithio a pha bethau y dylid rhoi mwy o bwyslais arnynt. Bydd angen ystyried amddifadedd a theneurwydd poblogaeth yn y dyfodol, ac yn amlwg, byddem yn awyddus i gadw'r rheini yn rhan o hyn. Ond byddaf yn cael y drafodaeth honno eto gyda fy nghyd-Aelodau ar 9 Chwefror i drafod eu safbwyntiau. A Lywydd, nid yw Carolyn Thomas byth yn colli cyfle i godi gwaith cynnal a chadw ffyrdd gyda mi.