The Leader congratulated the new Mayor and Deputy Mayor, Cllr Davies and Cllr McCarthy and the Youth Mayor and Deputy Youth Mayor and said that they made a first class team.

The Leader thanked colleagues for returning him as Leader of Bridgend County Borough Council. It was of course a huge privilege but also a great responsibility, especially in consideration of the significant ongoing challenges that lay ahead.

He would continue to give this role his full attention and focus to provide leadership which was, to coin a phrase that seemed to be very popular at the moment, ‘strong and stable’.

As part of this, it was important to acknowledge changes in the Council’s landscape and make-up that the authority had experienced over the last few weeks. Some of those gathered today had served as elected members for a number of years. Others were returning to the role after a period spent out of office, while several were experiencing it for the very first time. This change at a time when the most recent performance indicators from the Welsh Government and the Local Government Data Unit had highlighted that Bridgend County Borough Council had achieved the second highest number of improvements in Wales. Performance improved across 70 per cent of national indicators when set against a national average of 65 per cent, and when measured against other authorities, 24 of 40 comparable indicators were in the top two quarters. The highest ranking indicators included supporting older people to remain independent, ensuring pupil attendance within secondary schools, and reducing delays in the transfer of care. Many of these were maintained at a maximum level of one hundred per cent.

BCBC also performed well in areas such as planning and regulatory services, reducing the number of 15 year olds who had no qualifications, encouraging people to use local sport and leisure centres, ensuring that food establishments were compliant with relevant safety legislation, and many more besides.

This had all been achieved at a time when the Council had been forced to find multi-million pound savings in the face of ongoing austerity. The way in which the authority provided essential frontline services had fundamentally changed. Bridgend County Borough Council was continuing to make significant progress as it developed into a leaner, more efficient organisation, and these figures helped demonstrate this. It had been a far from easy process and one that didn’t draw a great deal of recognition.

Rightly or wrongly, people were more likely to react to a reduction in how often grass was cut than they were to a policy on how young people were helped to leave care with improved prospects for finding a home and a career. Nobody entered local politics expecting to have to cut services or close down facilities, but when that became necessary, the brunt of people’s anger had to be dealt with.

The Leader said that he believed in many ways weighing people’s expectations against the reality of what needed to be done could be a councillor’s singularly most frustrating experience. That was usually when the return of popular misconceptions was seen, such as the belief that council tax funded all services instead of accounting for a small portion of overall budget, or that members set their own allowances instead of being subject to the decisions of the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales. Such myths only served to obscure the truth during periods when tough decisions needed to be made and the authority should be under no illusions that the next few years would require some very tough decisions indeed.

The Leader asked why councillors did it. He believed it was because no matter what the political differences might be, what united councillors was that they all wanted what they thought was best for the communities and people that they represented. No matter what circumstances they had to work within, they still wanted the best outcome possible for the people who voted for them to act on their behalf.

It was going to be a challenge, the forecast for local government funding continued to look pretty bleak, and no significant influx of fresh money was anticipated in fact year on year cuts, so it would be important to manage unrealistic expectations now more than ever. As elected members, there was a duty to come together as a single authority to find a way through these challenges, and ensure that essential services could continue to be provided.

The Medium Term Financial Strategy, Corporate Plan and Change Programme were all in place to help achieve this, and sound financial and asset management arrangements to help deliver further multi-million pound savings.

He asked all members to be fully engaged in supporting the development of visions and options for change, and to help drive improvement in key service areas. Despite the difficulties that would be faced, it was important to remain ambitious for the county borough, and to continue to work in partnership on the delivery of key improvements and projects.

In his role as Leader, he was of course ably backed by his Cabinet colleagues. He was grateful for their unwavering support, and acknowledged their dedication and commitment.

There will be some changes to the Cabinet structure for the year ahead he added.

The Leader asked Councillor Dhanisha Patel to serve as the Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Future Generations, while Councillor Richard Young would take on the role of Cabinet Member for Communities.

He was sure that Councillors Patel and Young would both make a very valuable contribution to the Cabinet, and help support the strategic leadership of the authority. With their experience Councillor Phil White would continue to be responsible for Social Services and Early Help, Councillor Charles Smith would continue to lead on Education and Regeneration, and Councillor Hywel Williams would continue to be Deputy Leader.

He was confident that this team would be able to continue the good work that had already taken place, and would help to steer the authority through the challenges that lay before it with a steady hand. By working together for the interests of the people the authority served, protecting the most essential services and having the courage to tackle the difficult decisions head-on, it would be possible to come together as an authority, and ensure that Bridgend County Borough Council was more than capable of meeting the challenges that lay ahead.