The Leaders report was as follows:

 

“I would like to begin by thanking you for returning me as Leader of Bridgend County Borough Council.

 

It is an incredible honour and a privilege, and I would like to offer members my sincere thanks and respect.

 

I will, of course, continue to devote my full attention and focus to the role, and to do my very best for the people that we all serve.

 

Thank you for your service Councillor Watts, I expected you to serve the community with distinction and you did. You very skilfully chaired council meetings virtually, without doubt the most difficult meeting to chair. You make a wonderful team with Julia.

 

Congratulations are also due to councillors Giffard and Hussein for their success on becoming regional members of the Senedd. I am sure they will champion local government and Bridgend County Borough Council in their new roles.

 

I would like to place on record my deep respect for councillors Cheryl Green and Norah Clarke. Councillor Green is stepping down as chair of Scrutiny, and Councillor Clarke as leader of the opposition.

 

Both have held leadership roles during their time as elected representatives, and they have always been nothing less than constructive and respectful towards their fellow members when undertaking their duties.

 

They have always placed the interests of local residents at the heart of what they do, and I want to publically thank them for their contributions and their service.

 

Normally, this would be an opportunity for me to talk about the highlights of the council over the last twelve months, and to look towards what we will seek to achieve in the coming year.

 

However, the last year has been anything but normal.

 

It is now fourteen months since the coronavirus pandemic took hold, and forced us all to avoid contact and work from home.

 

Compared to how it was back then, the outlook is now thankfully far brighter, with infection rates falling, vaccinations increasing and lockdown restrictions continuing to ease. Nevertheless, Covid-19 has not gone away, and it would be foolish to act as if it had.

 

As such, Welsh Government advice to work from home wherever possible remains in place, and is likely to do so for some time yet.

I thought about this recently when considering what to speak about here today, and I was reminded of two things.

 

The first is just how challenging the last year has proven to be, but how, when the stakes were high, people came together to provide a unified response.

 

Back at the start of the pandemic, the council formed a coronavirus planning and co-ordination steering group, a move which proved to be crucial for ensuring that we could meet the challenges posed by the pandemic quickly and effectively.

 

The long working days and short nights soon rolled into one another, and severely tested us both as individuals and as an organisation.

 

We persevered and met these challenges by joining with other groups, public bodies and organisations to act as one in seeking to protect our communities.

 

Over the course of the crisis, partnerships were formed, and in many cases resurrected.

 

Organisations ranging from Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf councils to Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board, South Wales Police and Public Health Wales came together to share both information and resources for maximum effect.

 

This joint approach is continuing, and I suspect that it has laid down the groundwork for further close collaboration even after the pandemic is over.

 

The second thing I was reminded of when considering what I would say here today was the remarkable response from the council’s workforce in the face of Covid-19.

 

Our staff adapted, innovated and persevered under the most difficult of circumstances, working long hours without any additional reward and in some cases risking potential exposure to the coronavirus as they set about ensuring that the authority was able to continue to deliver essential services.

 

You may recall how we quickly consulted with trade unions and established how staff, resources and services might be redeployed and reprioritised in order to deal with the crisis.

 

One of the biggest concerns during the initial phase was, of course, the availability of sanitiser and suitable PPE equipment to help keep our workers safe and well enough to be able to continue to support people.

Staff worked wonders in ensuring that we could secure sufficient stocks, and even teachers from local schools pitched in to fashion protective visors and more using 3D printers and other workshop equipment.

 

I don’t know if you can remember where you were when the lockdown was finally announced and our streets and town centres suddenly emptied of people, but I was at the Civic Offices in Angel Street.

 

I remember thinking how unusual it was to walk the length of the building’s open-plan offices, and to not see or hear another member of staff.

Thankfully, the council’s ICT team pulled off a small miracle in the period leading up to the lockdown, and within a matter of weeks, they had equipped the council’s entire workforce to be able to work from home.

 

A huge effort was made to encourage residents to carry out their council business online or by telephone, and an entire range of advice and support for individuals, businesses and organisations of all types and sizes had to be hurriedly prepared.

 

With the announcement that the country was officially entering pandemic lockdown and that people were to remain at home, we quickly closed down schools and facilities such as Coychurch Crematorium, and instigated strict new rules at care homes to protect elderly residents from exposure.

Our social care staff ensured that no vulnerable person had to face the pandemic alone, and went to extra lengths to make sure that they were safe and secure.

 

Our school-based staff established online learning sessions, and distributed IT equipment and in some cases even broadband connections to ensure that no child would miss out on their lessons.

 

Alongside the wide range of organisations and agencies who came together to work in partnership and protect our local communities, a great deal was established in the early weeks and months of the pandemic.

 

This included the setting up of six emergency childcare hubs practically overnight to ensure that essential key workers could still attend work and keep the system running smoothly.

 

We developed a food parcel delivery system which ensured that more than 5,000 children who were entitled to free school meals did not go hungry, and which also enabled us to look after their welfare by maintaining safeguarding checks and direct contact.

 

Council depots were rapidly converted into temporary ambulance stations, Abergarw Manor was reopened as a temporary step-down facility for people leaving hospital, and an information sharing group was set up with all commissioned care providers.

 

We made sure that all care homes, private or otherwise, received latest guidance to help protect staff and residents, and carried out a range of work to get homeless people off the streets.

 

We supported the establishment of coronavirus testing centres, sourcing suitable locations and ensuring that they could move around the county borough and target communities where they could be of most help.

 

We worked alongside the brilliant BAVO and amazing community groups to support thousands of vulnerable people who were shielding, and set up a viable, locally-managed test, trace and protect system within just two weeks.

 

To support local businesses, our staff worked tirelessly and gave up their weekends to process thousands of funding applications which resulted in the provision of millions of pounds of financial assistance.

 

We also provided businesses with practical advice and guidance along with materials such as sneeze-guards, pavement livery, posters, signage and more, all of which was designed to keep staff and customers safe from exposure.

 

In addition, we froze rents for small and medium sized enterprises, including the stalls at Bridgend and Maesteg markets, and instigated periods of free car parking in areas such as Bridgend and Porthcawl.

 

From the very start of the crisis, key messages and official advice was monitored, shared and built into our own communications, and we undertook an unprecedented amount of internal work that sought to look after the health and well-being of council staff, and ensure they remained fit and well to provide vital services.

 

By the end of the first year, we’d issued more than a thousand media releases, and developed a comprehensive daily update that served to keep our key audiences informed throughout the height of the crisis.

 

We also had to plan for scenarios where waste and recycling might go uncollected and pile up in the event of mass exposure amongst the Kier workers – something which thankfully did not come to pass, and which Kier were particular active in avoiding.

 

Of course, it is easy to forget the uncertainty that we were dealing with back then. At the start, nobody knew for sure the potential impact that the pandemic could have, and there were many things that we had to plan for which thankfully did not have to be implemented.

 

I will never forget chairing meetings where we planned for the cold storage for bodies and even the possibility of carrying out mass burials as we experienced the initial surge in cases and hospitals were full of patients.

Nevertheless, this was a possibility which we had to be ready for, and the council and its partners put in place the plans, hoping all the while that they would ultimately be unnecessary.

 

While this thankfully proved to be the case, the virus still took its terrible toll.

We all know someone who passed away as a result of contracting Covid-19, and once the roll-out of coronavirus vaccines began in earnest, the council again undertook a critical role and worked alongside our partners in health to establish local vaccination centres.

 

Having visited the one at Ravens Court for my own jab, I can honestly say that it was a tight, efficient and extremely reassuring process. Now, and with recent confirmation from Public Health Wales that more than two million vaccinations have now been issued across Wales, I sincerely hope that the worst of the pandemic is behind us.

 

Unfortunately, the pandemic followed the likes of Brexit and several events which continue to have huge implications for the county borough.

 

Following the loss of the Bridgend Ford Engine Plant, we had the decision by Ineos to relocate their car manufacturing business to Europe, and the announcement from the Ciner Group that they were basing their bottle plant in Ebbw Vale.

 

Several times, I have repeated my call for the UK Government to work alongside Welsh Government and make renewed efforts to attract fresh investment into the area.

 

I do not intend to let this become forgotten about - urgent investment and rapid action still remains vital to protect the county borough's communities and local economy.

 

Welsh Government are making efforts to support us, so I again call upon the UK Government to join them, and to not forget about Bridgend County Borough.

 

We need them both to work with us to bring in new investment, businesses and jobs, to support existing employers, and to ensure that opportunities remain available for our future generations.

 

As disappointing those decisions may have been, however, they have not swayed our ambition or desire to deliver positive change for the people of the county borough.

 

As restrictions continue to ease, our thoughts have turned increasingly towards recovery, and what the future might hold.

 

Despite the disruption caused by the pandemic and the reprioritisation of our plans and services that it forced upon us, we were still able to continue to deliver a wide range of projects and make fresh investment into communities all cross the county borough.

 

In Bridgend, swift progress is being made on the £23 million Sunnyside wellness village in partnership with Linc Cymru Housing Association and Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board.

 

This will be a landmark development which will deliver almost 60 affordable homes, a modern new healthcare centre with consultation and treatment rooms, a GP practice, a specialist dental unit, a pharmacy and much more.

 

At Maesteg, the £7.9 million restoration and extension of Maesteg Town Hall is continuing, and when complete will deliver all-new facilities including a new glass atrium, studio theatre and cinema space, café and mezzanine bar, heritage centre, modern library and more.

 

In Porthcawl, contractors are about to start work on a new £6.4m flood defence scheme focusing on the Western Breakwater, Eastern Promenade and Coney Beach / Sandy Bay areas, and our ongoing regeneration scheme is making great progress at Salt Lake.

 

Furthermore, plans for investing in new community facilities at Cosy Corner in Porthcawl have moved a step closer after we agreed to match Welsh Government funding of £1m with an additional investment of almost £385,000.

 

The council also continues to be one of the leading authorities in Wales when it comes to areas such as recycling waste and diverting it away from landfill.

 

At Pyle, we are preparing to start work on improving the junction with Village Farm Industrial Estate in anticipation of the opening of the new community recycling centre later this summer.

 

The new recycling centre is going to be bigger and capable of dealing with more vehicles, and the junction improvements will make it far easier to enter and leave the estate. We are also completing construction of the new enterprise hub for small and micro businesses.

 

Elsewhere, our work with town and community councils is helping to develop facilities which would otherwise be under threat due to budget pressures.

 

We have been supporting various funding bids to undertake things such as community centre improvements, new play areas, playing field enhancements, footpath resurfacing and more.

 

Likewise, our community asset transfer process is continuing to deliver results, and we currently have around 55 applications at different levels of completion.

 

Our ongoing school modernisation programme has revealed plans for providing the biggest investment into Welsh medium and English medium provision in the Cornelly for more than 40 years, plans for a state of the art new primary school in Kenfig Hill and we are developing four new childcare hubs in Blackmill, Bettws, Bridgend and Porthcawl as part of a £2.6m investment into Welsh-medium education.

 

Together with our health board partners, we are investing at Trem y Mor in Bettws to support the work of the county borough’s integrated health and social care team.

 

This will deliver new facilities to support the training of new staff working in areas such as reablement, physiotherapy, nursing, social work and occupational therapy, and will provide ample testing and demonstration space for telecare equipment designed to help people with sensory and physical disabilities.

 

Our programme to bring empty properties back into use is also a growing success, with eight properties already approved and at various stages of work and a further 23 applications already making their way through the system.

 

We have established specialist litter hubs and are working alongside community groups to tackle rubbish, and have launched a new enforcement team to help fight fly tipping and other waste issues across the county borough.

 

Our multi-million pound programme of highways investment took advantage of quieter roads during the pandemic to make extra headway, and we are already embarking upon the next round of improvements.

 

One issue that really developed during the lockdown was the way in which people took up walking and cycling as part of their daily exercise, so we are capitalising upon this by investing millions into developing new active travel routes.

 

We are exploring options for providing more charging points for electric vehicles as part of the Cardiff Capital Region Ultra Low Emission Vehicle strategy, and are promoting a ‘try before you buy’ scheme to encourage more taxi drivers to transition over to wheelchair-accessible electric vehicles.

 

Work on a taxi charging point at Hillsboro Place Car Park in Porthcawl is already being planned, and funding is also being sought for charging points at Brynmenyn Industrial Estate, Bridgend Life Centre, Porthcawl, Maesteg Car Park, Bridgend town centre, Bryncethin Depot and the Civic Offices car park.

 

We have also made progress on our commitment towards the Bridgend 2030 decarbonisation strategy, the Bridgend Town Heat Network and the Caerau Heat Scheme plus a multi-million pound investment in energy efficiency improvements to our buildings.

 

As part of our efforts to support decarbonisation and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, we have plans in place for planting almost 3,000 new trees in areas such as Newbridge Fields, Sker Farm, the new community garden in Nantymoel, the Sunnyside Wellness Village development and more.

 

We are entering the final stages of the long-in-progress Local Development Plan which, when finally approved, will determine what developments will take place in the county borough over the next 15 years.

 

As part of this, the derelict Ewenny Road Industrial Estate site in Maesteg could soon undergo transformation worth £3.5 million thanks to support from the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal grant.

 

This will in turn unlock the site for further development and regeneration, and is just one of several such schemes we have in place.

 

We want the Local Development Plan to reflect our ambitions for the county borough, and to support the development of 7,500 new jobs as well as 9,200 homes required for accommodating the growing local population over the next decade and a half.

 

We also have extensive plans for developing and enhancing local transportation links, such as park and ride facilities for Porthcawl and the proposed Brackla railway station, extended / new park and ride facilities at Maesteg Ewenny Road and Pencoed, and a new replacement road bridge over the railway at Pencoed.

 

With a new passing loop and half-hour rail services to Maesteg and new bus corridor improvements, work is also progressing on the delivery of a new £5m extension at Pyle railway station and development of a new park and ride facility.

 

Anyone seeking a further example of this council’s ambition could also look towards our Bridgend Town Centre Masterplan – a regeneration strategy which has the potential for changing how we use the town centre area forever.

 

It is through projects such as these that this council is continuing to invest in new infrastructure for the county borough.

 

We are committed towards capitalising upon future developments throughout the region, working alongside partners including the Welsh Government and UK Government to maximise benefits, and to delivering high-quality services and facilities for the people we serve.

 

I am looking forward to seeing how these ambitions develop further in the year ahead, and I know that all members are too.

 

In my role as Leader, I am ably backed by the unwavering support of my Cabinet colleagues.

 

I would like to acknowledge their ongoing dedication and commitment, and to also confirm that for the year ahead, there will be some changes to the Cabinet structure.

 

Councillor Richard Young is stepping down as Cabinet Member for Communities, and Councillor Stuart Baldwin will take on the role.

 

Councillor Young is the only current member of Bridgend County Borough Council who also served on the former Mid Glamorgan County Council. Over 30 years of representing his town and the county borough is an exceptional achievement and record of dedication by anyone’s standard.  

His passion and belief green energy revolution is quickly clear to anyone who listen and his leadership and championing of that agenda has undoubtedly led to progress on district heat networks and zero carbon homes, a legacy that he can be rightly very proud of.

 

As well as being a political veteran, Richard is a military veteran who served our nation in the Royal Navy for over 8 years so he has always been committed to honouring our covenant as our Armed Forces Champion so I have asked him to continue in that role.

 

Councillor Young’s experience, wisdom and cool head has an invaluable asset, I have been able to count on him as both a respected colleague, and a friend.

 

Councillor Baldwin has demonstrated extraordinary energy and commitment, and I know that he relishes the challenge of this important role.

Together with my Cabinet colleagues, I would like to extend a warm welcome to him.

 

We also want to offer our sincere thanks to Councillor Young for the valuable contribution that he has made.

 

I am not proposing to make further changes to the current Cabinet portfolios, but would like to conclude my report by taking this opportunity to express my thanks to councillors Patel, Smith, Burnett and Williams for their ongoing and much-valued support. It is, as always, greatly valued.

 

Thank you. “