To receive apologies for absence (to include reasons, where appropriate) from Members/Officers.

Apologies for absence were received from the following Members and Officers, for the reasons given:-

To receive declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members/Officers in accordance with the provisions of the Members’ Code of Conduct adopted by Council from 1^st September 2008.

None.

The Mayor stated that these were his final announcements as Mayor.  He had thoroughly enjoyed his year.

            In this year he had been privileged to have attended so many wonderful events, even though it was hard to choose from any of them the one which will stay with him forever was meeting HRH the Prince of Wales at the Prince of Wales pub in Maudlam, which was a special day.

            The Mayor confirmed that these were his final announcements.

            He stated that these last couple of weeks had been very busy indeed as was this coming week.  Tomorrow he would be attending his last 60^th Wedding Anniversary celebrations followed by the ‘Best of the Borough Welsh Concert’ at Archbishop McGrath School.

            The Mayor stated that Friday starts with a visit to Mynydd Cynffig Infants School in Kenfig Hill then on to the opening of the refurbished Wyndham Arms in Bridgend, followed by a Rugby Presentation in Kenfig Hill.

            On Sunday he was attending Salon Cymru 2014 Hair and Beauty Event in Cardiff.  He will then be supporting and cheering one of his charities ‘Stroke Association’ at the start line of their ‘Step Out for Stroke Event Sponsored Walk’ at Newbridge Fields.

            Monday would include a visit from the Kenfig Hill Male Voice Choir in the Mayor’s Parlour and then onto the Library and Services Kick Out at Halo in Bridgend.

            On Tuesday, the Mayor announced he was attending Pil Primary School in recognition of their recent achievement in obtaining the ‘Investors in Family Award’ a wonderful achievement for them all.

            Finally, on Wednesday morning a visit to Litchard Primary School would be his last official engagement.

To elect the Mayor, to be invested at the Civic Inauguration Ceremony on 21 May 2014 and the Mayor (Elect) to announce their Consort/Escort.

A motion was received, which was duly seconded and carried unanimously, that Councillor G Thomas be appointed Mayor for 2014/15.

RESOLVED:              That Councillor G Thomas be elected as Mayor for the year 2014/15 and that he be invested at the Civic Inauguration Ceremony on 21 May 2014.

Councillor Thomas announced that his Consort/Escort for the ensuing year would be his partner Kay Jenkins.

To appoint the Deputy Mayor to be invested at the Civic Inauguration Ceremony on 21 May 2014, and the Deputy Mayor (Elect) to announce their Consort/Escort.

A motion was received which was duly seconded, and carried unanimously that Councillor R E Young be appointed as Deputy Mayor for 2014/15.

            RESOLVED:               That Councillor R E Young be appointed Deputy Mayor for the year 2014/15, and that he be invested at the Civic Inauguration Ceremony on 21 May 2014.

            Councillor Young announced that his Consort/Escort for the ensuing year would be his wife Annette Young.

The Mayor to announce the:

(1)  Youth Mayor of the County Borough of Bridgend.

(2)  Deputy Youth Mayor of the County Borough of Bridgend.

None.

To elect the Leader of Bridgend County Borough Council.

A motion was received, which was duly seconded and carried unanimously that Councillor M E J Nott be elected as Leader of Bridgend County Borough Council for 2014/15.

RESOLVED:         That Councillor M E J Nott be elected Leader of the Bridgend County Borough Council for the ensuing year.

To agree the number of Members to be appointed to the Cabinet and appoint the Members of the Cabinet.

The Leader may announce the Deputy Leader of Bridgend County Borough Council from those Members appointed to Cabinet and may announce the appointment of Cabinet Members to portfolio.

The Leader announced that the Cabinet for the year 2014/15, would comprise of himself and the following five Members:-

To receive a verbal report from the Leader

The Leader commenced by extending his congratulations to the new Mayor elect, Councillor Thomas and the Deputy Mayor for 2014/15 Councillor Young on their appointments (and that of their Consorts).  He added that he would speak more on their roles at the Mayoral Inauguration next week.

The Leader thanked Members for returning him as Leader of Bridgend County Borough Council. He had often said that he believed the role to be an honour and a privilege, and assured Members that his opinion had not changed in this respect.

The past year had certainly seen some interesting developments for local government.  Like many fellow Councillors, he did not remember a time when the scale and scope of the challenges that stood before the Authority had have been quite so imposing or numerous.

The pressing need to deliver savings of £36million over the next few years has brought with it a number of issues, but the Council squaring was its shoulders and tackling them through the likes of the Medium Term Financial Strategy, the Corporate Plan and the Bridgend Change Programme, all of which are united by their shared overall aim of ensuring that the council can continue to deliver high quality services for local people despite increasingly limited resources.

Bridgend County Borough Council did have a proven track record of prudent, pragmatic decision making and often being ahead of the curve.

For example, take the decision to go into partnership several years ago with Halo Leisure over the running of Council’s leisure centres. At the time, this was heavily criticised in some quarters, and wrongly described as ‘privatisation’.

However, now the results spoke for themselves, a multi-million pound refurbishment and hugely popular new facilities for Bridgend Recreation Centre, the relocation of Bridgend Library to an all-new purpose-built modern premises at the Rec where it attracted more than 10,000 visitors in its first month of opening, and a transformation for the old library building that is keeping it within community use as a cultural hub and base of operations for Bridgend Town Council.

Similarly, a decision to enter into a partnership with Kier for waste and recycling services was continuing to deliver major benefits, and has again provided the county borough with a 57 per cent recycling rate, one of the very best in Wales. Councils who don’t meet the statutory requirement of 52 per cent will soon face financial penalties, but this has been a major success story for Bridgend County Borough for some time now.

So has added the Leader the school modernisation programme, which is continuing to deliver first class results and has seen a number of significant successes in recent months. These range from a brand new £4.3million replacement school for Penyfai Church In Wales Primary, the £1.3million new Early Years Unit at Bryncethin Primary, and of course, the valley gateway area’s all-new £39million ‘super school’, Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen.

This in itself had been a massive achievement, especially when considering that it involved first finding and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 352.

            The Monitoring Officer submitted a report, which proposed a programme of ordinary meetings of the Council and Council Committees for the municipal year May 2014 - May 2015, for Council approval.

            The report reminded Members that the approval of the programme of ordinary meetings of Council and its Committees was required in accordance with the Council’s Constitution.

            The Monitoring Officer confirmed that the proposed dates for meetings of Council, were shown in paragraph 4.1 of the report, whilst the suggested Programme of Meetings was attached at Appendix 1 to the report.

            RESOLVED:               That Council:-

                                    (1)        Approved the proposed Programme of Council Meetings set out in Paragraph 4.1 of the report.

                                    (2)        Approved the proposed Programme of Meetings of Council Committees set out in Appendix 1 of the report.

                                    (3)        Noted the proposed dates of Cabinet, Cabinet Committees and Joint Committees for information purposes, also contained in Appendix 1 of the report.

The Monitoring Officer presented a report which sought approval for the terms of reference and size of committees, to approve the allocation of groups to committees and the political balance of the Authority, the appointment to committees, the removal of senior salary from the position of Chair of the Democratic Services Committee and the appointment of Chairs and where appropriate Vice-Chairs to committees.

            The Council was required by legislation and the provisions of Part 4 of the Rules of Procedure (Council Procedure Rules) of the Constitution, to undertake arrangements which will continue to facilitate and carry out the decision making processes of the Authority.  The recommendations of this report, if adopted, would seek to ensure that this will be successfully achieved.

            The Monitoring Officer advised that Part 3 of the Council’s Constitution entitled Responsibility for Council Functions, set out the Council’s Committees, Sub-

Committees, Panels and other bodies currently in place. 

The Monitoring Officer firstly advised Council to note that changes in existing arrangements for how the Authority discharges its licensing functions have been reviewed.  These changes were outlined for the benefit of Members in paragraph 2 of the report.

The next section of the report advised of certain changes to the roles and responsibilities of Overview and Scrutiny Committees.  This had been due to a number of service areas within the Authority being re-organised, and therefore the terms of reference of the Scrutiny Committees (where applicable) had been revised to reflect those changes.

The next part of the report dealt with changes to the terms of reference of the Audit Committee, in order to align its functions with guidance provided by CIPFA and in order to comply with Public Sector Internal Audit Standards.

The updated functions of committees were shown in Appendix 1 to the report, whilst the current committee structure was shown in Appendix 2 to the report.

The Monitoring Officer referred to Appendix 3 of the report that outlined the political balance of Committees, that had been modified to reflect changes mentioned above affecting the Council’s licensing functions.

The report then outlined information in respect of the allocation of Chairpersons of Overview and Scrutiny Committees to political groups that comprised the Authority, under the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011.  The formula used to calculate how Chairpersons should be allocated to these committees reflected that in Bridgend County Borough Council, Labour would be entitled to the allocation of 3 Chairperson posts, with Independent/Alliance and Independent/Annibynnwr having 1 each.

Paragraph 4.8 of the report then confirmed that Council notes that a co-opted Member was required to fill a vacancy on the Children and Young People’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  The Committee had recommended that H Daniel fill this vacancy as a representative of NAS/NUT.

The existing Committee Memberships were shown at Appendix 4 to the report.

In relation to the remuneration of chairpersons the report then proposed that after considering a report from the Independent Remuneration Panel, the senior salary paid to the Chairperson of the Democratic  ...  view the full minutes text for item 354.

The Monitoring Officer submitted a report which sought Council’s approval for the appointment of Members to the South Wales Police and Crime Panel and the South East Wales Strategic Planning Group, as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report.

            RESOLVED:               That Council approved the following nominations to the bodies listed below:-

The meeting closed at 3.00pm.