(i) Mayor (or person presiding)
(ii) Members of the Cabinet
(iii) Chief Executive
(iv) Monitoring Officer
Minutes:
Mayor
The Mayor announced that it gave him great pleasure to say that the Youth Mayor for the forthcoming year will be Megan Lambert and the Deputy Youth Mayor, Todd Murray.
The Youth Mayor’s Charity ball was held on the 6th of September at the Hi Tide in Porthcawl, in aid of the charity Prostate Cymru, a charity chosen by the young people in the Youth Council. Around 30 prizes were donated by local businesses.
All present and new members of the youth council were invited to the Ball, as well as a number of dignitaries including himself, the Leader, Cllr Patel, the Chief Executive and Lyndsay Harvey.
He stated that the Ball was a fun way to end Lewis’s term as Youth Mayor and was used as the official handover ceremony for Megan and Todd.
The night was a great success and raised in the region of £400, and it was also encouraging to see our future politicians so eagerly engaged and wanting their voices heard.
On Friday evening his Consort and he, attended the Bridgend Business Forum Awards which were sponsored by Valleys to Coast Housing and took place at the Coed-y-Mwstwr Hotel. These prestigious awards recognise and reward excellence across all sizes and sectors of business in the county borough.
There were various categories of winners, but the overall winner was Rockwool UK Ltd who scooped the overall title of ‘Bridgend Business of the Year 2019’.
The awards showed the diversity of business talent within the county borough and over the next few weeks he would be visiting the businesses personally to offer congratulations and see first hand the services that they provide. The evening also raised over £800.00 towards his charity for this year PRIDE Cymru.
The Mayor was also extremely pleased to inform Members that Bridgend Fire Station were crowned overall world champions for the 4th year running in the World Rescue Championships. The finals were held recently in France with Bridgend representing South Wales Fire and Rescue Service and the UK. This is the 7th year that they have won the title and he was sure that members and officers would join him in offering their sincere congratulations, which he would ask our representatives Cllr David White and Cllr Rod Shaw to convey to the Service.
The Mayor stated that he had the pleasure of attending the official opening of the Wales and West Hafod Housing affordable housing scheme in Coity on 28th August. He seen the inside of one particular home that was physically adapted with hoists and wheelchair accessibility. Finally, he also attended the opening of the Porthcawl Town Beach Flood defences last week with members of the Cabinet and Lesley Griffiths, AM. It was heartening to see that this very well executed project is now protecting over 260 sea front properties.
Deputy Leader
The Deputy Leader advised that the Council’s annual budget consultation is underway, and he thanked everyone who attended the pre-Council briefing. If all Members hadn’t attended this, he strongly encouraged them to stay for the second session at the end of Council, so that Members can ensure that they have all the information they need to advise your constituents.
With standard, youth, large-print and easy read versions of the consultation available, a full communications plan is in place to encourage participation. This includes tools and materials such as an explainer video, radio advertising, posters, leaflets, business cards, QR codes, digital signage, social media posts, media releases and more.
A live social media debate will take place on Tuesday 2 October as part of this, and once more he hoped Members would show their support for this.
Our consultation team is holding awareness events and are visiting equality groups, schools, town and community councils and more.
Five Citizens’ Panel events have been organised, and partners at BAVO will be holding two events of their own to support this.
He further hoped Members would encourage people to participate with the consultation as we analyse and use this feedback to inform our final decisions.
Members may be interested to know that we have teamed up with Porthcawl Town Council, Surfers Against Sewage, Keeping Porthcawl Tidy and other volunteer groups who care about the local environment to try and make Porthcawl the county borough’s first plastic-free town.
A community group called Plastic Free Porthcawl has been formed, and a dozen businesses have already agreed to stop using at least three plastic items.
Plastic straws, bottles, tops, cutlery, sachets, drinking cups, lids, bags and other on-the-go packaging are all among the biggest offenders when it comes to littering, and too many of them are damaging the planet.
As part of the scheme, we are organising workshops for Porthcawl businesses where they can discover more about the importance and benefits of reducing the use of polystyrene and plastics.
BCBC also want more businesses to sign up to the ‘Refill’ app which shows where people can fill up reusable bottles with free tap water.
If the scheme is a success, it could be developed further, and he was looking forward to bringing Members more news on this.
Cabinet Member – Future Generations and Wellbeing
The Cabinet Member – Future Generations and Wellbeing, provided Members with an update on the strong local response to the childcare offer from Welsh Government. The Council has received around 450 applications since it was introduced in May.
The scheme enables working parents of children aged 3 and 4 to access up to 30 hours of free childcare and early years education for up to 48 weeks of the year.
Applications are currently open for children born between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016.
She was sure that Members would wish to help promote this within their wards, and remind working parents that they may be eligible to access free childcare.
Cabinet Member – Communities
The Cabinet Member - Communities advised Members that a new re-use shop will open this autumn at the community recycling centre in Maesteg.
Household items that people no longer need and which are in a good condition can be donated to the at the Heol Ty Gwyn Industrial Estate centre.
The shop will be run by social enterprise Waste Savers in partnership with Bridgend County Borough Council and Kier, and will be called ‘The Siding’ in recognition of Maesteg’s mining past.
All of the profits from the sale of re-usable items at The Siding will be re-invested into social programmes.
Waste Savers already operate similar shops at recycling centres in Llantrisant, Newport and Treherbert. They are all extremely popular, so bargain hunters will be in for a real treat, he added.
On another note, the Chief Executive together with himself, will be attending a Valleys Taskforce public engagement event in Tondu on 30th September 2019.
Focusing on the issue of local rail links and the adoption of the valleys lines, this had been organised in collaboration with Transport for Wales and will take place at Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen.
Featuring information stands from a number of different organisations, the event will be presented as an informal drop-in between 4.00pm and 7.00pm, and will include a Q&A session which will start at 5.30pm.
He hoped that Members will support this event, and help publicise it within their wards.
Cabinet Member – Education and Regeneration
The Cabinet Member – Education and Regeneration, announced that Members may recall how the Valleys Regional Park or ‘VRP’ initiative is seeking to develop a highly visible network which incorporates uplands, woodlands, nature reserves, country parks, rivers, reservoirs, canals, heritage sites and attractions, all linked with towns and villages across the Valleys.
We received some very good news recently with the announcement that VRP funding has been approved to help support this in Bridgend County Borough.
Bryngarw Country Park is set to receive £500,000, and Parc Slip has been allocated £400,000. In partnership with Awen Cultural Trust and Wildlife Trust, South and West Wales, we will be making a wide number of improvements to enhance the overall visitor experience.
These include habitat and access improvements, solar panels, energy-efficient lighting, new play opportunities for children, ‘green-roofed’ bike shelters and more.
Electric car and bicycle charging points will be introduced at Parc Slip, while Bryngarw will receive a new education building for visiting schools.
Members may have seen that colleagues in Carmarthenshire recently agreed to mark the anniversary of the Aberfan disaster with a minute’s silence at local schools.
October 21st 1966 is one of those rare dates where you can remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when the tragic news emerged.
Shortly after the primary school had completed morning assembly, and started the first lesson of the day, one hundred and forty-four people were killed in the disaster, 116 of whom were children.
He applauded the move by Carmarthenshire, and thought it was only right and fitting that we invite our own local schools to mark this year’s anniversary in an appropriate and sensitive fashion, with pupils of an appropriate age.
If Members were so inclined, it could also be made a permanent act of remembrance in years to come, not necessarily through a motion to Council like our friends in Carmarthenshire, but perhaps just by general agreement followed by a circular from the education service.
Cabinet Member – Social Services and Early Help
The Cabinet Member – Social Services and Early Help advised that our work with Young Carers hit a milestone recently when the 300th young carers ID card was issued to a local youngster.
The card was developed four years ago to support children and young people who have a caring role in their lives, and is intended to support them in education and make it easier when they find themselves having to explain their circumstances.
Young Carers can simply show the card to their teacher or another adult to let them know about the added responsibilities they have at home.
If a child or young person is in a position where they take responsibility for someone who is ill, disabled, elderly, experiencing mental illness or who is affected by substance misuse, then they are, by definition, a Young Carer.
If they have considerable responsibility for caring for a sibling, this also makes them a Young Carer.
The Council is actively working to identify people who may be young carers, and to offer them support and information.
The scheme has drawn the attention of Welsh Government, and he was delighted to note that they are considering the introduction of a national version that will target Young Carers throughout Wales.
The Cabinet Member – Social Services and Early Help advised that the Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) was undertaking a National Inspection here at Bridgend this month. He confirmed that the purpose of the inspection, was to explore how well local authorities and local health boards are promoting independence and preventing escalating needs for older adults. The inspection would identify those factors that drive good outcomes for people, as well as the barriers to progress.
Chief Executive
The Chief Executive announced that an important briefing would be held for Members on the subject of Brexit Plans on Friday 4 October 2019 at 9.30am in the Council Chamber.
He hoped as many Members as possible could attend this session.
Monitoring Officer
The Monitoring Officer announced to Council three changes of dates to the following Committees :-
1. Audit Committee dated 23rd January 2020 to change to 30th January 2020. An announcement to this effect was made at the last Audit Committee dated 8 August 2019.
2. Subject O&SC 1 which was due to be held on 9 September 2019 has been re-scheduled to 30 October 2019. Members of the Committee have been made aware of the change previously by email.
3. Subject O&SC 3 dated 4 November 2019 to change to 14 November 2019. An announcement to this effect was made at the last Subject O&SC 3 dated 5 September 2019.