The incoming Mayor for 2021-22, Councillor Spanswick, gave the following announcement.

‘Firstly Mr. Mayor I would like to welcome all Councillors, guests and family who, thanks to the new ways of working with virtual meetings, can all be present here with us today.

I am honoured and thankful to have been elected to the office of Mayor for the County Borough of Bridgend for the year 2021 – 2022. Over the years it has not been something I truly expected to happen or aspired to, but I suppose after now entering my 23rd. year as a County Borough Councillor and nearly 30 years as a Community Councillor, it was about time I took on the role.

Nevertheless I will not be undertaking this role on my own and I am proud to inform you that my consort for the year will be my wife, Susan Spanswick, who I am sure will keep me in check and let me know if I step out of line. Susan has supported me over all the years with my work in the community, while I have been out and about attending meetings, etc. she has been working both part time as a Homecare worker and getting on with family life bringing up our 3 children and more lately helping with our 4 grandchildren (and soon to be another one in July), but for one year only Susan will now be stepping forward with me to help represent the County Borough of Bridgend.

Going back to what this honour means to me I thought it would be appropriate to give you a little insight into where I have come from. Not far in fact, as I was brought up in Nantymoel in the lovely Ogmore Valley and while I no longer live there, I still love driving up through the valley towards the Bwlch mountain. While growing up I may not have noticed people in public life and Councillors of the day, but there is one in particular I did notice as I became a teenager in the late 1970’s and that was Councillor Muriel Williams from Ogwr Borough Council, more commonly known as Muw from the Rhiw as the council offices at the time were situated across the river from where they are today, alongside the Rhiw shopping centre. Muriel become the Mayor of Ogwr Borough Council and I am extremely proud to be the Mayor of this County Borough with Nantymoel heritage.

During 1980 I was fortunate to become an Apprentice Groundsman with Ogwr Borough Council based at Griffin Park in Porthcawl and had to travel each day from Nantymoel on my 50cc. moped. Not a great experience on a wet and windy day. It was those early years of the 1980’s that got me interested in politics and the local community and the rest as they say, is history. I will be forever grateful to Ogwr Borough Council for starting me off on my career path in parks and green spaces which ended up with me spending 39 years in local government and finally achieving the post of Parks & Countryside Manager at neighbouring Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council in 2016.

On the subject of green spaces and our outdoor environment, this is an area I will be looking to champion over the coming year and in particular the planting and maintenance of trees, together with safeguarding our green spaces. What better legacy can we leave for our children, than to plant as many trees as possible (of the correct species and in the correct location) and to protect green spaces for future generations. Some initial work has already commenced in respect of the planting of trees with a project being led by Bridgend College to plant 60,000 trees by 2025. I have already attended a working group consisting of officers from this authority, Bridgend College, V2C, Fire Authority, Groundwork and others to look at working together on this and we will be meeting again in early June. While it is a big ask, I am hoping that the target of 60,000 tress can be increased to around 145,000 which would roughly equate to one tree for each member of the population of the County Borough.

The timing of this could not be better as the Queen’s Green Canopy scheme has been launched this week to encourage people to plant trees from the start of the tree-planting season in October 2021 through to the end of 2022, to mark her 70 years on the throne. People across the UK are to be invited to plant 'healthy native trees' next year for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Prince Charles has described planting a tree as a “statement of hope and faith in the future”. He has even called it a tree-bilee. More news in the future on that and by the end of my year in office you may be a little tired of me going on about trees and green spaces.

I shall endeavour to fulfil and promote the role and office of Mayor to the best of my ability by supporting community events wherever and whenever possible whilst at all times keeping in mind the need for us all to stay safe as we emerge from the pandemic. I do sincerely hope to return to Nantymoel during my forthcoming year in office and help promote the Ogmore Valley along with all the other wonderful areas we have within the County Borough of Bridgend.

Now onto my chosen charities for the year and as we all will be aware it has been a difficult time for fundraising, but I do hope you will be able to support me with this task. Not sure how many of you will have heard of Lads & Dads, but this was a local support group set up in Brackla in October 2019 to help men, young and old, with their mental wellbeing following concerns with the increasing number of young men ending their own lives. Its strapline is Talking, Walking, Thinking, Supporting.  I helped the founder (Rob Lester) set up the first few meetings at Brackla Community Centre to give people the opportunity to come and chat in a confidential setting. The group now has over 400 members from the local area and further afield, and some great work is taking place with more and more men talking confidentially about matters of concern to them. While I am currently the Secretary of the group I will be stepping down from this in the weeks ahead to give somebody the chance to take the group forward with the other trustees. The other local charity I will be supporting is Bridgend Carers Centre who undertake an essential role in supporting unpaid carers throughout the County Borough and they have faced many challenges during the pandemic and continue to do so as we try to return to the new normal, whatever this may be.

Lastly, I wish to say well done to the outgoing Mayor Councillor KJ Watts and his consort Councillor J Williams. I appreciate it has perhaps not quite been as you would have expected, with limited events, and meetings being held virtually, but it’s been a privilege to have been your deputy and to have worked with you over the past 8 months.

Finally, I do hope that it is only a matter of time before we return to some sort of normality with meetings in the Council Chamber and in that respect I am sure you will all be ready to test out my patience as Chair of the meeting. Look out though, it may be a rough ride ahead!