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

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

             Councillor D M Hughes       -    Family Commitments

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 September 2008.

None

The Mayor announced that Members may be wondering why Council Officers are present with a video camera in the Chamber today.

           They were filming some brief, silent shots of the Council meeting as part of a short five minute film looking at a day in the life of a modern Councillor.

           The silent footage was required as part of a Welsh Government project which Councillor Townsend was involved with, and the completed short film will ultimately be broadcast via the Welsh Government website.

           The filming would be carried out as quickly and discretely as possible, and he thanked Members for their co-operation and patience.

           The Mayor then gave his final announcements, confirming that he could not believe how quickly the year had gone.

            Firstly, he welcomed Councillor Neelo Farr, the new Member representing Newcastle Ward, to her first Council Meeting.

            As Mayor he stated that he had been privileged to attend many wonderful events, over 450 during the year, and he was so grateful to have had this opportunity to represent the County Borough.

           The last couple of weeks had been busy as always.  He was privileged to attend two separate services celebrating VE in day Cardiff, one at the Cathedral and one at the Castle, and there was a wonderful celebratory and thankful atmosphere in both venues.

           Members of the Swansea PALs re-enactment company, who had been part of the Bryngarw WW1 event last year, came to the Mayors Parlour to talk over what they had been doing and what their 2018 plans were. The Mayor confirmed that he was pleased to meet them again. So these last few weeks had continued the military theme which started last year.

           The Charity Committee organised the biggest two events of the Mayoral calendar with a successful Golf Day where the Mayor played a round of golf. He added that the Mayor’s Gala last weekend was amazing, and he was glad so many Members were able to attend and help support his charities.

           Finally, he confirmed that the Mayoral Inauguration takes place next week, and he stated that he  would be grateful if Members would let the office know if they were attending or not, as on the practical side exact numbers attending needed to be established as soon as possible for booking catering facilities.

To elect the Mayor, to be invested at the Civic Inauguration Ceremony on 20 May 2015, and the 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 Mayor for 2015/16.

RESOLVED:              That Councillor R E Young be elected as Mayor for the year 2015/16 and that he be invested at the Civic Inauguration Ceremony on 20 May 2015.

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

To appoint the Deputy Mayor, to be invested at the Civic Inauguration Ceremony on 20 May 2015, and the Deputy Mayor (Elect) to announce their Consort/Escort

A motion was received which was duly seconded, and carried unanimously that Councillor R D Jenkins be appointed as Deputy Mayor for 2015/16.

            RESOLVED:               That Councillor R D Jenkins be appointed Deputy Mayor for the year 2015/16, and that he be invested at the Civic Inauguration Ceremony on 20 May 2015.

            Councillor Jenkins announced that his Consort/Escort for the ensuing year would be his wife Theresa Jenkins.

The Mayor announced that Daniel Butlin would be the Youth Mayor for 2015/16.

The Mayor announced that Cari Burns would be the Deputy Youth Mayor for 2015/16.

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 2015/16.

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

The Leader announced that the Cabinet for the year 2015/16, would comprise of himself and the following six Members:-

            The Leader of the Independent Alliance Group, whilst appreciating that within the past year Councillor Smith had been appointed as a Cabinet Member to support the Cabinet due to the ill health of other Cabinet Members, she confirmed that she could not support a permanent increase of Members on the Cabinet, particularly since this original problem had now been resolved by a change in the membership of Cabinet. The reason for this, was that under the Council’s MTFS, employers were still facing the threat of redundancy due to cutbacks affecting local government and the extra money committed to a further Cabinet Member could go to easing these redundancy pressures. She therefore moved an amendment that was duly seconded and proposed that the Cabinet be made up of 6 Members as was originally the case.

            The Leader responded by stating that the number of Members on the Cabinet had been increased due to the overall workload of the Cabinet as a whole, both at the time Councillor Smith was appointed, and at the present time. He added that he felt this trend would continue in the future. He further added that the number of Members on the Cabinet in BCBC was still less than that in neighbouring authorities where there were as many as 9 or 10 Members forming the Cabinet.

            Members then agreed to have an electronic vote on whether or not a recorded vote should be taken in order to establish whether or not there should be 6 or 7 Cabinet Members, to comprise the Executive.

            Following the electronic vote, it was unanimously agreed to have a recorded vote on this matter.

          The outcome of the recorded vote was as follows:-

            For (a Cabinet comprising 7 of Members)        Against                   Did Not Vote   

            Cllr M Thomas                                                      Cllr M Winter           Cllr L Ellis       

            Cllr R E Young                                                     Cllr D G Owen         Cllr G Thomas                                                                                  

            Cllr H M Williams                                                  Cllr S Aspey

            Cllr A D Owen                                                      Cllr B Jones                     2

            Cllr R Williams                                                      Cllr E Venables

            Cllr J R McCarthy                                                 Cllr N Clarke

            Cllr D B F White                                                    Cllr C A Green

            Cllr N Farr                                                             Cllr K J Watts

            Cllr R M James                                       

            Cllr D R Pugh                                                               8

            Cllr D R W Lewis

            Cllr J E Lewis

            Cllr P James

            Cllr E M Hughes

            Cllr G Phillips

            Cllr G W Davies MBE

            Cllr P John

            Cllr H E Morgan

            Cllr P A Davies

            Cllr E P Foley

            Cllr E Dodd                                                               

            Cllr D Sage                                                                                                                                                                                                

            Cllr M W Butcher

            Cllr M Jones

            Cllr C Westwood

            Cllr M Reeves

            Cllr C L Reeves

            Cllr J C Spanswick

            Cllr C L Jones

            Cllr H J Townsend

            Cllr J H Tildesley MBE

            Cllr P J White

            Cllr H J David

            Cllr M E J Nott  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

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

The Leader stated that he would announce the Deputy Leader of BCBC from those Members appointed to the Cabinet, and confirm which Members of the Cabinet would cover the various portfolios, some of which had been re-aligned, in his report below.

The Leader confirmed that he was honoured and privileged to once more be returned as Leader of Bridgend County Borough Council, and offered colleagues his thanks and continuing respect.

            He said at the last annual meeting of Council that he could not recall another time when local government has had to face challenges of such scale or scope.

            One year on, this was more relevant than ever, and the situation looks set to grow increasingly difficult over the next few years as we continue to strive to deliver essential services against a backdrop of ever diminishing resources.

            But if past performance had taught him anything, it was that Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) is an authority that is up to the challenge.

           The options before us haven’t changed and are as simple as they have ever been, we can either stay still and sink without trace, or develop new ways to meet the needs of our local communities, and where possible draw on the strengths and abilities that they already possess.

            That is why BCBC had in place it’s Medium Term Financial Strategy, Corporate Plan and Bridgend Change Programme, to ensure that we can adapt and meet local needs while also achieving savings of £49million over the next few years, in the process transforming the authority into an organisation that keeps finding new and innovative ways of working with other partners and our communities, both directly and alongside them.

            BCBC’s transformation agenda was powering ahead and staff had relocated to the civic offices and Ravenscourt, enabling us to make savings and sell the Sunnyside site as a prime town centre development opportunity.

            The Council had already achieved huge savings through internal efficiencies, collaborative projects, contract renegotiations and the transfer of specific services to partner organisations.

            The Regulatory Services partnership with Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan is well underway, as are plans for us to take on CCTV coverage in the Vale area.

            The Leader was particularly excited to see that efforts to provide arts and culture services through a new Cultural Trust had drawn a strong response from people who have applied to become trustees.

            This was an ambitious new project that epitomises BCBC’s efforts to find new ways of delivering services, and it is going to give people who have a passion for arts and culture an opportunity to have a far greater say in how the service is provided in future.

            The Leader also had high hopes for the Cultural Trust, and wanted it to be able to deliver the same kind of success and benefits that we are seeing with our innovative partnership with Halo Leisure.

            He had to admit that he still smiled whenever he visited Bridgend Life Centre to see its many excellent and popular facilities and high level of investment, and he wanted BCBC to be able to deliver to a consistent high standard across all other partnership projects, those that have already been set up, and those that are still in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

The Monitoring Officer submitted a report, which proposed a programme of ordinary meetings of the Council and Council Committees for the municipal year May 2015 - May 2016, 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.

            A Member asked if it would be possible to change the dates of some Committee meetings scheduled in the Programme of meetings to take place in weeks where there were school term holidays, in order to assist Members of those Committees  who may have childcare commitments.

            The Monitoring Officer advised that other than in August, where there were only a small number of meetings scheduled to be held due to this being the main summer holiday period, meetings were spread evenly throughout the year, in order to follow a scheduled cycle specifically designed for that particular Committee and the extent of its business, and also to spread meetings out evenly over the course of the municipal year.

            The Leader confirmed that it may be possible to re-visit the Programme of meetings in due course for the reason requested, however, as Members were aware, the

            Council as a local authority, served the public 52 weeks of the year, and this issue was taken on board when it scheduled its formal Committee meetings

            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.

                                   (4)        Further noted the following minor amendments to the Programme:-

                                               Democratic Services Committee – To be held on 28^th May   instead of 21^st May 2015.

                                               Corporate Resources and Improvement O&SC – To be held on 24^th June instead of 23^rd June 2015

The Monitoring Officer presented a report which sought approval for the appointment of Overview and Scrutiny Committees and such other Committees, Sub-Committees, Panels and bodies as the Council considers appropriate, to deal with matters which are neither reserved to full Council nor are executive functions

            The Council is 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 next section of the report advised of certain changes to the titles, membership, roles and responsibilities of Overview and Scrutiny Committees previously agreed by Council, and a minor change to the Audit Committees terms of reference which required approval of Council.

The updated functions of Committees were shown in Appendix 1 to the report, whilst the revised 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.  An updated Supplementary version of this was tabled at the

meeting, as the political balance of the Council could not have been fully calculated until the outcome of the by-election in respect of the Newcastle ward on 8 May 2015

Appendix 4 of the report clarified the existing membership of Committees and would form the basis of any changes to the membership of Committees put forward by political group Leaders. These changes were also tabled for Members information.

RESOLVED:         That Council:-

(1)    Appointed the Overview and Scrutiny Committees and such other  Committees as the Council considered appropriate to deal with matters which are neither reserved to the Council nor are executive functions

(2)    Approved the terms and reference and size of Committees, Sub-Committees and other bodies as set out in Appendix 1 and 2 of the report, subject to the minor change of remit to the Audit Committee explained above and outlined in paragraph 4.3 of the report.

(3)    Noted the full details in respect of Appendix 3 to the report, as updated and tabled to Members at the meeting.

                                    (4)   Approved the allocation of seats to political groups in accordance with the political balance rules as set out in Appendix 3 of the report.

(5)    Approved the nominations to serve on each of the Committees, Panels and other bodies as shown at Appendix 4 to the report, subject to the changes put forward by political group Leaders, and to appoint those Councillors (and other Members) to the relevant Committees.

(6)    Received nominations and appointed the Chairpersons and Vice-Chairpersons of the following Committees, Panels and other bodies (as indicated) with it being noted that the Audit Committee at its first  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

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:-