(i) Mayor (or person presiding)

(ii) Members of the Cabinet

(iii) Chief Executive

(iv) Monitoring Officer

The Mayor

 

The Mayor announced that as Members were aware a lot of work had previously gone into forging good relationships with the Armed Forces and the organisations that supported them. In November 2013 Bridgend signed the Armed Forces Community Covenant and a significant amount of work was undertaken within Bridgend County Borough to underpin the commitment to this pledge.  The Mayor had the pleasure alongside the armed forces champion, Councillor Richard Young, to welcome to the civic offices some of the longstanding partners at a “meet and greet” event last month. It was a great opportunity to learn more about the invaluable work that the different organisations undertook and identify future opportunities where work could be undertaken together for the benefit of the armed forces communities.  The event was extremely well attended and a great boost to continuing commitment.

 

The Mayor announced that the fifth Bridgend Business Awards had taken place and it was lovely to attend and meet all finalists.  She believed it was vital to continue to encourage local businesses and in the coming weeks she would be visiting some of the winners to see first-hand the excellent work that they did.

 

On the subject of celebrating local initiative, the Mayor was honoured to attend the annual “It’s my Shout” premier recently.  This project originated from the arts service in Bridgend County Borough Council and now fifteen years later, it had grown to be one of the most prolific training and development schemes for the creative industries in the UK. Bridgend Youth Theatre which was run in partnership with “It’s my Shout” was one of her chosen charities so she was delighted when they performed on the night to their usual excellent standard. 

 

The Mayor announced that she also visited the Liberty Stadium for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards in the presence of the Earl of Wessex Prince Edward, and that it was an excellent evening.  She also attended the Pavilion to see the Porthcawl Male Voice Choir with Mike Doyle as the entertainer and the Vale of Glamorgan’s Mayors Civic Ceremony.

 

The Mayor’s Civic Blessing was held in St. Marys Catholic Church, Ewenny Road and she thanked the Mayors Civic Committee for organising everything and also to the Dignitaries and fellow Councillors & friends and family who attended. 

 

Deputy Leader

 

The Deputy Leader advised that the latest figures demonstrated that Bridgend County Borough was still well on the way to achieving the new recycling targets set by Welsh Government.

 

However, the Deputy Leader explained, a concerted effort was being made to encourage more people to recycle from their bathrooms following research by the organisation Recycle For Wales. This had revealed that only 60 per cent of bathroom items such as toothpaste tubes, shampoo bottles and cardboard toilet rolls were recycled compared to 90 per cent of kitchen items.

 

Across the country, tonnes of recyclable plastic, metal, paper and cardboard unnecessarily ended up in landfill each year, so the authority would be carrying out work over the coming weeks and months to remind local residents what they could do to brush up on their bathroom recycling routine.

 

The Deputy Leader added that following the recent announcement by the Finance Secretary, Mark Drakeford AM, it was clear that Local Government would have a challenging time ahead. He reported that officers were studying figures closely to protect Bridgend and front line services. 

 

Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration

 

The Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration reported that he was delighted to take part in a ground-breaking ceremony earlier this week to mark the start of work on the all-new £10.8m Pencoed Primary School.

 

As the current school was built in the early 1900s and provided separate infant and junior education across different sites in Pencoed and Heol y Cyw, the new premises would mean that children would no longer be required to cross a busy main road several times a day in order to walk between classes.

 

He explained that the new school would cater for up to 510 pupils aged between four and eleven alongside a 70 place nursery and facilities for children with special educational needs. The new premises would also provide associated sports and leisure facilities that could be shared with the wider community.

 

The project was being jointly funded by Bridgend County Borough Council and the Welsh Government’s 21st century schools programme. The Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration was looking forward to when the new premises opened in September 2018 as it would bring the whole school together on a single site for the first time in its history.

 

The Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration also acknowledged a series of recent Estyn inspections on several of the local schools. Current performance and prospects for improvement were found to be good at Mynydd Cynffig, Ysgol Gymraeg Bro Ogwr and Oldcastle, and adequate at Llangynwyd.

 

The inspectors made a number of positive comments across each of the reports, and he thanked teachers, staff, governors and pupils for their ongoing efforts. Work would now be taking place to address the findings of the reports, and the schools would be looking to capitalise on areas where they were doing well and take a closer look at where further improvements can be made. He explained that there would be a programme of support for Llangynwyd.

 

The Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration advised members that they could read Estyn reports for local schools on the modern.gov site.

 

Cabinet Member for Social Services and Early Help

 

The Cabinet Member for Social Services and Early Help announced that the council held its first ever ‘visioning’ event for carers at the Hi-Tide in Porthcawl and he was happy to report that it had been a massive success.

 

Almost a hundred people attended, many of whom were previously unknown to the authority as carers, and the authority was able to give them access to information and support that they did not know they could receive. The event brought together people who were carers for family members, friends and neighbours, and asked them to look at the future of care services in Bridgend County Borough. Organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors took part to help develop a shared vision on how care services needed to be adapted and changed in order to meet future needs.

 

The Cabinet Member for Social Services and Early Help explained that the feedback gained from the event would be used to inform an independent report that would help decide how care services should be developed to meet future needs, and would give carers a chance to discuss what mattered most to them. One of the attendees wrote a poem about her experiences at the event, and if members would like to read a copy, they could get one by contacting Carer Development officer Kathy Proudfoot.

 

Cabinet Member for Communities

 

The Cabinet Member for Communities reported that it was with disappointment that he had to report that following the latest approach to the Welsh Government, it had not been possible to upgrade the proposed road safety scheme along the A48 from the reserve list. Despite the scheme being strongly supported in a letter also to Welsh Government by South Wales Police, he had been informed that the scheme, for the moment, remained on the reserve list and would be considered if and when funding became available.

 

He assured Council that he would continue to lobby on behalf of the scheme, and would continue to keep Council informed of any progress.

 

However, the Cabinet Member for Communities reported, work had begun to drill two test bore holes close to the former Caerau Colliery in Maesteg.

Former mine workings in the valley could potentially offer a geo-thermal source of energy as they had filled up with water, which had an average temperature of around 10 to 14 degrees Celsius. The Council was investigating the idea of pumping water from the old disused mine workings and transporting it through a network of pipes to residents’ properties in Caerau. The heat would be extracted and passed through a heat pump, providing heat for the property using its existing radiator system.  The mine water would not, at any point, enter the homes of residents.

 

If results from the drilling proved successful, the project had the potential to make a huge positive impact in the Llynfi Valley and would undoubtedly prove to be an exciting time for the authority at the cutting edge of the UK’s green energy revolution.

 

The Cabinet Member for Communities also made members’ aware that a new pilot scheme had been introduced in efforts to reduce dog fouling within the Bridgend County Borough area. New signs had been installed at Maesteg Welfare Park and at the Woodlands playing fields in Pencoed to encourage all dog owners to be responsible and pick up after their dogs. The signs incorporated a supply of dog waste bags which could be used free of charge. The problem of dog fouling was frustrating and the authority was targeting these two locations for the purpose of the pilot due to the number of complaints that had been received about them being problem spots.

 

He explained that how effective they were in encouraging irresponsible dog owners to change their habits would be monitored and if they were a success, the authority would look at whether it could install more of the units at other locations across the county borough.

 

Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Future Generations.

 

The Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Future Generations reported that ten years after the Welsh Government’s Flying Start programme was launched in Wales, the success of the scheme in Bridgend County Borough was recently celebrated with the official openings of two more facilities dedicated to helping young children get the best possible start in life. She explained that Flying Start provided free, high-quality part-time childcare for two to three year olds, as well as an enhanced health visiting service, help with early language development and access to parenting programmes.

 

These latest additions were successfully operating at Lewistown and Garth, and they joined eleven other Flying Start facilities located at Betws, Blackmill, Brackla, Cefn Glas, Caerau, Cornelly, Maesteg Park, the Oakwood Estate, Plasnewydd, Sarn and Wildmill. The scheme was all about enabling and equipping families to be able to provide better opportunities for their sons and daughters, and the initiative was currently benefitting more than 1,500 local children.

 

Chief Executive

 

The Chief Executive reported that there was a BBC story recently which claimed that Bridgend County Borough Council had made errors of £1.9m in calculating housing benefit. He stated that some members had expressed understandable concern about this, so he took the opportunity to help clarify the matter.

 

He explained that the £1.9 million figure was a hypothetical amount. The actual error amount was not much more than £3,000. The Wales Audit Office looked at the financial statements for 2016-17. They examined 45 housing benefit claims, and found errors in 11 of them. They then extrapolated that information across the total number of claims that the authority had processed, and through this they arrived at the hypothetical £1.9m.

 

The Chief Executive added that the reason why this figure was so large was because one of the errors they highlighted was actually quite significant, in the region of £1,889. However, a full two-thirds of the errors they found were for amounts that were the equivalent of £1 a week. Without that single larger error, the hypothetical amount would have been in the region of £400,000.

 

He stressed that he was not excusing the fact that there were errors. The authority strived for accuracy when calculating housing benefit claims, and the presence of any errors was clearly not good enough.

 

There were six underpayments which had already been paid to the correct value, and five overpayments. For these, the general principle had been applied of whether a claimant could have reasonably been expected to know that there would be a change. With this in mind, the authority was recovering the overpayment in three cases, and not pursuing it in two cases where the value was £24 and £16 respectively.

 

The Wales Audit Office had said that despite the errors, they could not detect any material weaknesses in the internal controls, and that it appeared to be a case of human error rather than control failures or weaknesses within the processes.

 

BCBC was still one of the best performing councils in terms of the time it took to process new claims, although it was closer to average when it came to processing changes of circumstances.

 

As regards what was currently happening, the authority was carrying out further work and testing each of the error types that had been identified by the Wales Audit Office. It was far too early to provide any findings at this stage, but so far, there was no discernible pattern to be seen other than human error. Management checks on individual claims had increased as a result, and targeted checks were underway alongside additional coaching, training and awareness-raising.

 

The Chief Executive added that on a more general level, the average housing benefit was approximately £80 per week, but could be as low as 50p or as high as £300 in some cases, for example, where specially adapted accommodation was required. There were around 16,000 claimants in the county borough. The total value of housing benefit accounted for £50m, and around 60 per cent of all housing benefit claimants were in receipt of 100 per cent of their rent. He reported that he would bring further updates on this issue as more details emerged.

 

Monitoring Officer

The Monitoring Officer reported that following consultation with the Scrutiny Chairs of the following Committees:

Subject Committee 2 had been postponed from 09 October 2017 – to a date yet to be confirmed

Subject Committee 3 had been postponed from 25 October 2017 to 22 November 2017 at 9.30am

Both meetings had been changed due to the unavailability of external invitees, Kier and AMBU for the original meeting dates.