The Leader advised that the Council amongst others, were expecting more details soon about the proposal by the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Finance regarding the Health Board that will serve the communities of Bridgend.  The Council had been busy over the summer preparing the ground for any potential change. The Leaders of Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, himself and Cabinet Members had met with the Chair of the Health Board and we were all clear that although we will plan for the future we will also continue to work closely together on our joint and integrated services. Also, himself, the Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help, the Chief Executive, appropriate Director and BCBC’s Heads of Service had also met with the Chair and Chief Executive of Cwm Taf Health Board. Cwm Taf were very keen to talk about practical ways to develop a very close partnership with Bridgend. The Leader asked about their initial thoughts about the Princess of Wales Hospital, and the Chief Executive without hesitation confirmed their commitment to the A&E unit at the Hospital, and in fact said they would consider ways to increase the specialist services offered there.

Back in July, the Leader advised that he had informed Members of a meeting held with the Lifelong Learning and Welsh Language Minister, Alun Davies AM, to ensure that Bridgend County Borough benefits from the ‘Our Valleys, Our Future’ proposals, and he had promised to bring back to Members further details regarding this.

He was therefore pleased to report that a Valleys Taskforce event will be held at Maesteg Town Hall tomorrow evening between 6pm - 7.30pm, and people will be able to find out more about the plans to create thousands of new jobs and get an extra 7,000 people into work by 2021.

A number of Council initiatives were also exhibiting at the event, including the Upper Llynfi Valley Heat Energy project, the transformation of Maesteg Town Hall and the Bridges into Work 2 programme. This was a significant event and he hoped that Members would offer this their full support as we continued to make the case for a strategic hub for investment in the Bridgend Valleys.

Alun Michael, Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales, this week announced his intention to appoint Matt Jukes as the new Chief Constable of South Wales Police from 1st January 2018. This followed the announcement by the current Chief Constable, Peter Vaughan QPM, of his intention to retire at the end of December.

As part of a comprehensive appointment process, the Leader was invited together with Council Leaders and Chief Executives from across South Wales to be a member of one of no less than four separate expert panels that interviewed Matt Jukes who was the current Deputy Chief Constable at South Wales Police. The feedback from the panels and the final interview panel was unanimous in supporting his appointment the Leader added.

The decision was subject to scrutiny by the Police and Crime Panel for South Wales, where the Authority were represented by Councillor RE Young, and this body would meet on Friday to consider the Commissioner’s decision and whether to endorse it or not.

The fifth Bridgend Business Forum Awards will take place on 29th September at the Coed-Y-Mwstwr advised the Leader. There were 19 finalists across eight categories this year, including start-up business of the year, service business of the year and entrepreneur of the year. This event was growing bigger and stronger every year, and more details regarding this could be found on the Bridgend Business Forum website.

Finally, he advised that the Council were committed to helping people back into work, and as well as initiatives like Bridges Into Work and holding 75 job club sessions every week, the Council will be working Job Centre Plus to present this year’s jobs and information event. This will take place at Bridgend Life Centre, also known as the Recreation Centre on Thursday, 14 September, and will feature a wide range of local organisations, businesses and training providers. There would be around 50 stands there, all of which will seek to help local people discover new career, training and employment opportunities.

The Leader was sure that Members would wish to share news about this very useful event with their constituents.

Chief Executive

The Council wished to bring Members up to speed on how the current electoral canvass is going.

The first phase of the process closed with the initial registration deadline expiring last month, and we are now into the next phase of the canvass.

As of this morning, a total of 45,000 registrations out of a potential 63,000 had been received.

The Electoral Division were focusing current efforts on reminding the 18,000 eligible householders who have yet to respond about the importance of being included on the electoral register.

Reminder letters featuring a new response deadline have been issued.

The Authority were also carrying out publicity activities to promote the canvass, highlighting the fact that being on the electoral register does more than enable people to vote have their say, for example, it also helps with things like obtaining credit or applying for things like mobile phone contracts, mortgages or passports.

A particular emphasis was being placed on how easy it is for people to register, as well as the various ways in which they can do this.

From 20 September, canvassers will be knocking on people’s doors as part of the final phase of the canvas. They’ll be targeting the remaining households that haven’t responded to either the original communication or the reminder.

The final register is set to be published on 1 December, so the very last chance for people to make sure that they are included is 20 November.

The Chief Executive stated that Members may wish to make a note of that deadline so they can advise any constituents who approach them about this issue.