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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Civic Offices Angel Street Bridgend CF31 4WB. View directions

Contact: Mark Anthony Galvin  Senior Democratic Services Officer - Committees

Items
No. Item

189.

Declarations of Interest

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.

 

Minutes:

None

190.

Approval of Minutes pdf icon PDF 124 KB

To receive for approval the Minutes of 15/07/2019 and 29/07/2019

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the 15/07/2019 and 29/07/2019 as a true and accurate record.

191.

Bridgend's Local Government Education Services pdf icon PDF 80 KB

To be accompanied by a power point Presentation.

Minutes:

The Corporate Director – Education and Family Support and Family Support presented a report which updated Members of the Town and Community Council Forum on Bridgend’s local government education services.

 

He explained that BCBC maintained 60 schools, which included 48 Primary Schools (4 being Welsh-medium education), 9 Secondary Schools (1 being Welsh-medium education) and 2 special education schools.

 

The Corporate Director – Education and Family Support and Family Support explained that Bridgend was one of five local authorities in the Central South Consortium joint education service for school improvement. He informed Members that in 2019-20, the Council’s net Education and Family Support Directorate budget was approximately £114m, which represented 42% of the Council’s total net budget of £271m.

 

The Corporate Director – Education and Family Support and Family Support provided figures in relation to children and young people in Bridgend which was detailed at 3.3 of the report. He also provided statistics relating to school and pupil budgets which were detailed at 3.5 and 3.6 of the report.

 

The Corporate Director – Education and Family Support gave a presentation which elaborated on the aforementioned topics with the following key points noted:

 

       Overall, pupils in Bridgend make good progress between the statutory school ages of five and sixteen.

 

       Pupil attendance is strong and consistently compares favourably with the all-Wales average.

 

       Pupil exclusion data is generally in line with the all-Wales average, although, recently, BCBC has seen a rise in fixed-term exclusions.

 

       In general, progress made by vulnerable learners, is either in line with, or better than, the all-Wales average.

 

The Corporate Director – Education and Family Support provided further pupil information which saw that:

 

       Over a 3-year average, 18.1% of pupils aged 5 to 15 are eligible for free school meals (which is slightly higher than the Wales average of 17.9%).

 

       7.7% of pupils aged 5 and over are fluent in Welsh (which is lower than the all-Wales average of 16.2%).

 

       6.0% of pupils are from ethnic minorities (which is lower than the all-Wales average of 11.0%.

 

       20.2% of pupils have special educational needs (which is lower than the all-Wales average of 22.6%).

 

       131 children per 10,000 were looked after by the local authority in 2018 (which is higher than the all-Wales average of 102 children per 10,000).

 

The Corporate Director – Education and Family Support explained that improvements had been made in schools which was shown by recent Estyn assessments. It was found that Bridgend had 31 ‘green’ support category schools (up from 27 in 2017-2018); 22 ‘yellow’ support category schools (up from 21 in 2017-2018); 4 ‘amber’ support category schools (down from 9 in 2017-2018); and 3 ‘red’ support category schools (which is the same as in 2017-2018).

 

He added that the processes to monitor ‘schools causing concern’ were effective and the impact of these focused and robust systems for ensuring that progress was clear. For example, in the past year: the number of schools in Estyn review or monitoring  ...  view the full minutes text for item 191.

192.

Street Cleansing pdf icon PDF 147 KB

Minutes:

The Head Of Operations - Community Services presented a report to update on the current street cleansing activities and resource levels throughout Bridgend County Borough and its Town Centres.

 

He explained that that the ongoing financial savings implemented by BCBC in order to meet reductions in public funding have had a significant impact on the size of the Street Cleansing Teams. He advised that in 2010, the street Scene Department consisted of around 85 staff in total, now in 2019 the department was made up of 35 operators.

 

The Head Of Operations - Community Services explained that in May 2019, the All Wales Local Environmental Audit and Management System Report 2018-19 compiled from independent on street inspections carried out by Keep Wales Tidy, gave Bridgend a Cleanliness Indicator Score of 67.7 and graded the streets predominantly free of litter and refuse apart from some small items or better as 96.7%. These scores were shown on Appendix 1 with all other Welsh authorities, as can be seen the Bridgend scores are comparable with those of surrounding South Wales authorities. He added that the general score was actually the highest Bridgend has ever scored.

 

The Head Of Operations - Community Services explained that the Cleaner Streets Operations Officer had spent considerable time over the past year building relations with the community. They had attended meetings to identify opportunities and offer support and ideas for ways in which to work together to meet objectives. He outlined the project work that had taken place which was listed at 4.9 of the report.

 

The Head Of Operations - Community Services explained the situation on dog fowling and said that it had been on the forefront of complaints received coupled with social media escalating people’s opinions further, which had increased the demand for more action to be taken. He advised that the Public Space Protection Orders could be used in certain areas which gave the Local Authority the power to place bans for certain activities in an area, one of which can be dog walking, as a way to tackle the dog fouling. Further enforcement had also been in place whereby members of the public who walk their dog can now be fined for not carrying appropriate dog waste disposal bags.

 

The Head Of Operations - Community Services explained that to further improve the street scene environment, the contractor 3GS had been engaged to carry out litter enforcement activities throughout the borough. He advised that 592 fines had been issued and 10 prosecutions that had gone to court. He stated that approximately 80% of the fines issued were from cigarette littering. The enforcement work began in May 2019 and was set for review after one year had elapsed which would then set out future provision for enforcement.

 

The Head of Operations – Community Services explained that the costs of the Street Cleansing Teams were met through the Councils Revenue Budget and there was also additional funding provided from Welsh Government for £30,000 which would be used  ...  view the full minutes text for item 192.

193.

Urgent Items

To consider any other item(s) of business in respect of which notice has been given in accordance with Rule 4 of the Council Procedure Rules and which the person presiding at the meeting is of the opinion should by reason of special circumstances be transacted at the meeting as a matter of urgency. 

 

Minutes:

None.

 

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