(i) Mayor (or person presiding)

(ii) Members of the Cabinet

(iii) Chief Executive

 

The Mayor

 

The Mayor announced that many of the outdoor engagements she had attended with her Consort such as the Bridgend Show which took on the Pencoed campus had coincided with the recent good weather, where they had met some of the he exhibitors and attendees. 

 

The Mayor was delighted to have attended a wonderful performance of “Les Miserables” by the pupils of Bryntirion Comprehensive School where she had the opportunity of meeting the cast and crew afterwards.  She stated that the production was mesmerizing and every person involved should be proud of such a professional performance.  Similarly, Pencoed Comprehensive’s production of “Chicago” was impressive in its high quality and she extended her congratulations to the staff and pupils for all their dedication and hard work.

 

The Mayor also announced that she had been kindly invited by Councillor Janice Lewis to the Heol y Mymydd Community Garden Society Open Day.  Councillor Lewis and the Society gave the Mayor and Consort a very warm welcome.  There was an amazing community spirit which was clear for all to see, and a lovely mix of ages learning and sharing experiences, with the  allotments being so tidy and full of healthy growth. 

 

The Mayor announced with pleasure that Bridgend has produced another champion, with Aled Davies MBE putting Bridgend on the map again with his gold medal in the Paralympics and setting the world record as the first man in his particular classification of shot put to pass the 17m mark.  She stated that the County Borough is proud of this young man and a formal letter of congratulations was being sent on behalf of the County Borough, from the Mayoral office.

 

The Mayor was pleased to announce her chosen charities for this year will be Bridgend Youth Theatre; Breast Cancer Care – Princess of Wales Hospital and the Alzheimer’s Society Bridgend.  She stated that over the coming months there will be plenty of opportunity to support her fundraising and the events will be put into Members’ calendars.

 

The Mayor thanked Councillor Malcolm James and the Ramblers who stood in at the final moment when entertainers booked for the Charity Strawberry Tea were unable to attend.  All who attended enjoyed every minute of the performance and she thanked Councillor James for coming to the rescue and for providing the event with such fun.

 

Cabinet Member Communities

 

The Cabinet Member Communities was delighted to see six local sites included among this year’s Green Flag awards from Keep Wales Tidy.  The Green Flag scheme recognises the best public parks and open spaces, and this year’s winners featured Maesteg Welfare Park, Bryngarw Country Park and Wilderness Lakes in Porthcawl.  Caerau Market Garden and the Wilderness Allotment Association also picked up Green Flag community awards, while Coychurch Crematorium won its Green Flag for the eighth year in a row.  Thanks are due to the staff, volunteer groups and individuals who work tirelessly to maintain these sites to such high standards.  Their Green Flag success is a fitting tribute to their on-going efforts.

 

The Cabinet Member Communities announced that a bid was recently submitted to the Welsh Government to fund road safety improvements along the A48 between Laleston and Waterton.  While that bid was unsuccessful, work was underway to ensure that the designs will be in place so there are no further delays once alternative funding has been confirmed.

The proposed improvements include a 50mph speed limit, new pedestrian refuges at key points along the route, resurfaced footpaths, extended footway links, new signage and road markings, and more.  He stated that the report found that although the route ‘generally benefits from good forward visibility with an average carriageway width of 10metres’, there were 32 collisions between 2011 and 2015.  While the accidents accounted for an above-average casualty severity ratio, collision rates were less than the national average for corresponding types of road.  The study found that nine of the 32 collisions occurred at night while six took place during wet weather.  Alcohol, driver error and illegal manoeuvres also figured in the data.  He hoped to bring positive news on this very soon.

 

The Cabinet Member Communities also announced in his role as Armed Forces Champion of an event to commemorate Corporal James Llewellyn Davies who was killed in action on the Western Front in the Battle of Passchendaele during the first World War.  Corporal Davies was born and brought up in Nantymoel and is the only resident of the County Borough to have been awarded the Victoria Cross.  The event will be marked by the laying of a commemorative paving stone and will take place on 30 July 2017 in Nantymoel, all are welcome to attend.  

 

Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help

 

The Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help announced on behalf of the Deputy Leader that the annual electoral canvass was underway to confirm that information held on the electoral register for each property is correct.  Any residents who provided their email address in the last canvass are being advised to look out for an email, which will present itself as coming from ‘Elecreg on behalf of Bridgend County Borough Council’, and will have the subject title 'Bridgend CBC – Electoral Registration 2017'.  He advised Members of asked by constituents to advise that this is a genuine and important email, and not spam or a scam.  He stated that the main postal canvass is also getting underway to ensure that the details we have for each household are correct.

 

The Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help also announced that the next training session for rota visiting will be held on 31 July in the Council Chamber between 12:30pm – 1.30pm.  He urged all Members to make every effort to attend and take part in the next session as only three Members had attended the most recent session. 

 

Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations

 

The Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations announced that the

school summer holidays have started and as usual the Council is supporting a wide range of free initiatives to keep local children happy, healthy and active.  Park Lives is offering free activity sessions at several local parks including zumba, bubble football, free running classes, family tai chi, mini gladiators and more, while Active 4 Life sessions will mix sports with games, arts and other creative activities.  The Welsh Government’s free swimming sessions will be running alongside bilingual activities such as snorkelling and water polo.  Communities First are providing health and learning events, Urdd Gobaith Cymru have organised several Welsh-language sports camps for youngsters and further fun Welsh activities are being offered by Menter Bro Ogwr.  Awen are running the summer reading challenge at local libraries which will culminate with a book tower building event at Newbridge Fields, and are also offering reading, lego, film, coding and storytime clubs.  The Grand Pavilion and Maesteg Town Hall are hosting puppet shows, panto auditions and more, and Bryngarw Country Park will feature outdoor theatre performances of popular books such as ‘Billionaire Boy’, ‘The Wind in the Willows’ and ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’.  She urged Members to let their constituents know about the events and full details are available on the ‘school’s out’ pages on the Council’s website.

 

The Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations also announced that a video has been uploaded to the Council’s website which features Cefn Glas teenager Jodie Coupland describing how the Get On Track programme helped her turn her life around.  Run by the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust and supported locally by Bridgend County Borough Council, the programme uses world-class athletes to help young people aged 16 to 25 to develop their skills and find work.  Jodie was mentored by Wales women’s rugby international Philippa Tuttiett, who recently travelled to the Senedd to talk about what a difference it has made to her life.  She now works for Halo Leisure and mentors other young people.  The Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations congratulated Jodie and everyone who has helped deliver the programme.  More details can be found in the new edition of the BridgeMembers newsletter, and she hoped that Members would also view the video to see for themselves what an impact Get On Track is having.

 

Cabinet Member Education and Regeneration

 

The Cabinet Member Education and Regeneration was delighted to see school inspectors from Estyn remove Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen from ‘special measures’.  He stated that when the school was inspected in October 2015, inspectors identified a number of urgent actions.  In order to improve the effectiveness of leadership at all levels and ensure clear direction, high expectations and accountability, the Council had arranged for Nick Brain, Head teacher of Bryntirion Comprehensive, to provide executive leadership at Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen.  Less than two years later, a follow-up inspection has concluded that the school has delivered significant improvements across all of Estyn’s recommendations.  He informed Council that this was fantastic news and marked a significant first step forward in ensuring that the school has a strong foundation on which it can build and deliver further improvements.  He stated that Estyn’s confidence in Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen’s progress was a clear indication of the positive ways in which the teachers, staff, governors, parents and students at the school have engaged with the process, and a further sign of their commitment and dedication towards providing pupils with the very best levels of education.

 

The Cabinet Member Education and Regeneration also congratulated three other local schools on some recent successes.  Cefn Glas Infants had seen Keep Wales tidy renew their platinum eco award and healthy schools status, while Garth Primary have won three awards in the Welsh National Enterprise Troopers scheme with an idea based on recycling old crayons and using them to make new ones shaped like letters.  Meanwhile, Porthcawl Primary has won the Wales category of the ‘Achievement For All’ award scheme – a national initiative that recognises and celebrates the achievements of children, young people, leaders and teachers. 

 

The Cabinet Member Education and Regeneration announced that the iconic Jennings Building on Porthcawl Seafront was now home to a new restaurant, pizzeria and a coffee bar.  All three are open for business, and it was wonderful to see how the Grade II-listed structure has been invested with a new lease of life.  As part of a £2.5m project by Wales-based developers ABA Holdings with support from Bridgend County Borough Council, Finance Wales, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Cadw, the upper level also featured 13 live-in units with workspaces and loft bedrooms that will create a community of people living and working on site.  He stated that this was great news for Porthcawl, and a landmark development that will attract locals and visitors alike.

 

Chief Executive

 

The Chief Executive referred to his announcement made at the previous meeting of Council where he gave an update on fire safety across the Borough including the Council’s response to the Grenfell tower fire.  He stated that at that time there were a number of properties where the Council was undertaking investigation and some Members raised queries about some additional properties throughout the County Borough. 

 

He informed Council that the priority of government has been to ensure testing is undertaken for certain types of premises where aluminium composite material cladding (ACM) is in place.  It had been the Council’s priority at properties with residential accommodation.  The Council has 11 properties that fall into this category but none are 18 metres or more in height.  Additionally none have any cladding.

 

Most importantly, the Chief Executive confirmed that in all cases these properties have fire risk assessments in place that have been completed over the past 12 months and regular testing of alarms and evacuation drills, with the exception of the Coychurch Crematorium supervisor’s house which is vacant.  The tallest building in council ownership is the Civic Offices and there is no cladding, again current fire risk assessment, evacuation and drill procedures are in place.  He stated that 48 of the Council’s schools do have cladding installed but none of these are above 18 metres and none are residential.  Again all schools have up to date fire risk assessments and weekly testing of alarms and termly fire evacuation drills.  He stated that the only other properties identified so far as having ACM cladding are the Pyle Life Centre which is neither residential or above 18 metres and Pyle Enterprise Centre.  In both of these cases this is a different type of ACM to that used in Grenfell Tower. 

 

The Chief Executive informed Council that outside of the estate, the Council has also looked into the Caerau Regeneration schemes which are all fully compliant with building regulations.  With regard to buildings over 18 metres, the Bottle bank building in Porthcawl and the Rhiw development are both compliant with the building regulations.  He stated that the Job Centre Plus building has crown immunity but the Council’s Building Control function and the fire service have checked from the outside and do not believe it poses a risk but assurances are being sought from the DWP. 

 

The Chief Executive informed Council there is still work to be completed on evaluating some of the industrial estate sites and some libraries and community centres but again these are buildings of typically one storey and not used for residential purposes and so are considered low risk.

 

He stated that he would shortly be winding up the task and finish group pending any further developments at a national level and once the remaining outstanding checks on remaining low risk buildings have been completed. 

 

The Chief Executive announced that Members would no doubt have seen the recent statement from Mark Drakeford, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, in which he discussed local government reform.

 

The AM set out three areas that he intends to focus on, namely the form and function of town and community councils, changes to the local government electoral system with a lower voting age of 16, and mandatory regional collaboration between councils.

 

Each of these will have significance for this County Borough and its communities but he firstly focused on the mandatory regional working.  He stated that the Cabinet Secretary had indicated a direction of travel whereby the pace of collaboration would be accelerated by Welsh Government mandating specific services or groups of services to be delivered on a prescribed geographical “footprint”.

 

For a long time, this Council had been making the point that Bridgend County Borough is unusual in that it operates looking both east and west at the same time.  The Council undertakes collaborative work with the health board through the Western Bay partnership, while in the opposite direction it has collaborations in place on education, regulatory services and the Cardiff City Deal. 

 

He stated that while the Council is regarded as an effective and valued partner on all of these fronts, looking in two directions is inherently unsustainable.  It makes it more difficult to truly integrate working across the economy, health, education and so on.  This specific anomaly had been acknowledged by the Cabinet Secretary in the White Paper that was published earlier in the year.

 

The Welsh Government’s preferred solution is for the Bridgend locality of the ABMU health board to become part of the Cwm Taf Health Board.  This would mean that for the first time in many years, all of the Council’s services and collaborations would be lined up with a consistent group of partners.

 

The Cabinet Secretary is proposing further dialogue over the coming months on these proposals, but his statement suggests that the work on social services and health integration across the communities of Bridgend County Borough will continue.

 

Most of the Council’s operational relationships are within the Bridgend locality with GPs, community health and the Princess of Wales hospital.  While this would carry on, the Council’s partners would become RCT and Merthyr Tydfil Councils, third sector partners operating in Bridgend County Borough and the Cwm Taf Health Board.

 

This clearly involves a lot of work.  He believed there is a need to focus on bringing the Western Bay ‘culture’ to the new partners, and also consider whether there are any key aspects in which the Council could work with former Western Bay partners and the Cwm Taf partners in a similar way to what South Wales Police are doing.

 

For services like strategic transport, economic development and planning, the Cabinet Secretary’s announcement confirms our existing commitment to developing meaningful sharing or collaboration across the City Deal area. 

 

However, his announcement may well result in a greater impetus for this, and will almost certainly cast a wider net for a range of services that could be brought together on a similar basis, for example, by building further on the existing school improvement collaboration, or continuing to explore the sharing of support services.

 

Before any potential re-alignment or local government reform can take place, a great deal of formal consultation will be necessary as well as further work to fully understand the consequences of such a move.

He stated that the Cabinet Secretary’s proposals clearly have major implications, but they also present many positive opportunities, and there would be engagement as fully as possible in shaping these further.  This includes the other proposals relating to changes to the electoral system including how councillors are elected and council decisions are made and the “root and branch” review of town and community councils that the Cabinet Secretary has referred to.

 

The Chief Executive informed Council that the Minister anticipates making a further statement in the autumn, when there will be more clarity on how any move would affect the Council’s current working partnerships, and a greater insight into what shape future reorganisation might take.