The Leader announced that preparations were in full swing for the Royal Porthcawl Golf Club to host the Senior Open Championship again next year with the news that BCBC would be contributing £50,000 towards the running of the event.

He stated that the funding would cover the costs associated with highways services, local marketing, school roadshows in partnership with Golf Development Wales, and providing an open top bus to link the town centre with the golf course.  He added that the open top bus proved to be an extremely useful service to ferry fans between the town and the course, so BCBC were particularly happy to fund that once again.

He advised Members that whether they were golf fans or not, this was an event that the whole community should get behind as it helped to put Bridgend County Borough on the map and brings significant economic benefits to the local economy.

He informed Members that in 2014, a total of 43,000 spectators lined the fairways over four days to watch the championship, which generated an estimated £2.16m for the local economy.  That included approximately £1.1m being spent on accommodation, £785,000 spent in shops and cafes, and £275,000 spent by event organisers on local services. Comprehensive TV coverage was also calculated as being worth £5.2 million.

 In 2014, local volunteers, residents and businesses showed fantastic support and BCBC looked forward to welcoming everyone back to Bridgend’s corner of the golfing world again next year.

The Leader stated that he was sure that Members did not need reminding that the latest Medium Term Financial Strategy and Corporate Plan that the Authority have set was amid a backdrop of ever-diminishing resources for local government. He added that putting them together had been another extremely demanding process, but they both lay out how the Authority intended to continue with their efforts to deliver high-quality services and achieve our targets and budget reductions.

The Leader advised that both the MTFS and the Corporate Plan had been designed to protect essential frontline services as much as possible, and he was particularly pleased to note that by looking at things like internal efficiencies, collaborative arrangements and contract renegotiations, the Authority had to date, been able to find half of all the savings made from within the Council itself.

For 2016-17 the Leader stated that the Council has proposed a net budget of £255 million and a capital programme of £44 million. In order to set a balanced budget while managing inescapable pressures and promoting essential services, the Authority had also proposed budget reductions of £7.5 million and a council tax increase of 3.9 per cent.

The Leader added that this was the equivalent of an extra 94p a week for a Band D property, and had been reluctantly proposed because it was necessary for ensuring that the authority can continue to meet the needs of local residents.

Whilst the Authority expect to have to find £35.5 million of recurrent revenue budget reductions over the next four years, BCBC have also proposed an additional £9.5 million for investing in some highly significant initiatives which included funding for new sea defences in Porthcawl, developing Maesteg Town Hall into a cultural hub with additional facilities and a library, creating two new Extra Care facilities for the county borough, establishing a new household recycling centre at Pyle and improving traffic and transport safety outside local schools.  Furthermore, it incorporated plans for strengthening the A4061 bridge in the Ogmore Valley, refurbishing buildings at Heronsbridge so they can provide 52 week residential services for children with disabilities, modernising the Homecare service with new technology, making the Civic Offices more accessible for people with disabilities and developing a new state of the art system that could be used to heat local homes and businesses.

The Leader advised that it enabled the current funding for highways repairs to be maintained as well as the budgets for things like Disabled Facilities Grants and Housing Renewal Schemes. It also increased the budget for match-funding initiatives proposed by town and community councils in order to support the transfer of community assets, and introduces two fixed additional allocations to meet the ongoing costs of replacing Telecare equipment, street lighting columns and bridge infrastructure.

The Leader thought that the plans for 2016-17 were particularly significant in that they had been produced in partnership with local residents.  He advised that the Shaping Bridgend’s Future consultation used an online survey, social media debates and community engagement events to invite local residents to become involved in the development of the MTFS and corporate plan.

He advised Members that 11 out of 12 budget reduction proposals received majority support while reductions for highways drew the least enthusiastic response. The majority of respondents agreed with the idea of protecting some services over others, and feedback gained through the consultation had resulted in a number of changes to final plans, which included scaling back proposed cuts to highways maintenance, subsidised bus routes and voluntary sector bodies.

The Leader thanked everyone who participated in the Shaping Bridgend’s Future consultation. BCBC listened to what local people said, and incorporated their feedback into the plans for 2016-17.