The Leader firstly extended a very special thank you to the Mayor, Councillor Pam Davies for representing the authority within our County Borough and representing Bridgend across Wales so well, with confidence and ease, this last year. He also extended his congratulations to the incoming Mayor Councillor John McCarthy and his consort, and also BCBC’s new Deputy Mayor Councillor Stuart Baldwin.

 

He took the opportunity to thank BCBC staff, as it was only because of their hard work and service that the Council continued to provide the vital services that it did, and it seems that every year more and more was being asked of staff, despite there being less and less of them. There was one officer in particular that he wished to thank today, which was Andrew Jolley’s last meeting as Corporate Director Operational & Partnership Services and Monitoring Officer. As an example of how we continue to ask more of officers, he has been given responsibility for Housing, ICT, Human Resources and Customer Services. He had always found Mr. Jolley firm but fair, and he had been very loyal to his staff, and believed in and practiced a philosophy of “growing your own”. A key responsibility of the Monitoring Officer is to promote and uphold transparent and open government and high standards of probity, and successive Wales Audit reports have demonstrated that those standards were in place in BCBC. He thanked him for his service, and hoped that he would enjoy his retirement, with his grandchildren and ‘tinkering about’ with old cars.

 

Mr. Jolley thanked the Leader and all Members for the support he had received since he had been in BCBC. He similarly thanked Officers for their support also. With this he added, his job had been all the more easier to do. He concluded by confirming that he had thoroughly enjoyed his time within the Authority since he had started employment here some 14 or so years ago.

 

The Leader confirmed that he was both honoured and privileged to once more be re-elected by fellow Members as Leader, and he thanked them for their continued support to this end.

 

He added that he could only serve as Leader with the backing of his Cabinet colleagues.

 

He was confident that this team would continue the good work that has already taken place, and as always, he was grateful for their commitment towards their roles.

 

Serving in any capacity as an elected Member was not an easy job, and as we all know, the last few years have been among the most difficult if not the most difficult that the Council has ever had to face.

 

But whatever challenges have arisen, the Authority have faced each and every one of them, and continued to do so with resolve and a united purpose across the Chamber, to support our local communities to the very best of our ability.

 

Never ending national austerity marches on, and as a Council, we are continuing to strive to deliver essential services against a backdrop of ever diminishing resources. 

 

With over £30 million to save over the next 4 years many of the decisions that we have to make will be unpopular, but they will be made with a firm focus upon the reality of our changing environment, and on protecting our most essential services and our most vulnerable citizens.

 

When it was considered where we were when we started out along this journey and consider where the authority is now, the Council had repeatedly demonstrated that it is capable of rising to and meeting whatever new challenges it had to face.

 

Instead of failing, BCBC had developed new ways to meet the needs of its local communities, and he was proud of what it had achieved together as a ‘One Council.’

 

The Medium Term Financial Strategy, Corporate Plan and Bridgend Change Programme are in place to guide us and ensure that we can adapt and meet local needs while also achieving multi-million pound savings necessary for delivering a balanced budget.

 

In the process of this, BCBC were an organisation that kept finding new and innovative ways of working with other partners and communities, both directly and alongside them.

 

Our transformation agenda has already achieved major savings through staff relocation, closing offices, rationalising estate, shared services with the police, collaborative projects, contract renegotiations and working with successful partner organisations such as HALO and Awen.

 

The Regulatory Services partnership with Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan is now well established, the Cardiff Capital City Region Deal the single biggest collaboration of local authorities ever in Wales, and our waste and recycling service is smashing through targets set by Welsh Government less than a year after it was launched.

 

The first of those targets begins in 2019 with local Councils expected to recycle 64 per cent of all waste. As of last month, our own recycling rate was 68.5 per cent, an increase of more than ten per cent when compared to April 2017.

 

This was good news, and he was looking forward to seeing the service improve even more during its second year of operation. He thanked residents for the patience particularly in the early days, as a result of their support and enthusiasm for recycling that has made this increase successful.

 

The Leader also wanted BCBC to be able to deliver to a consistent high standard across all of its partnership projects, those that had already been set up, and those that were still in the making.

 

But we have also seen evidence of high standards across a number of areas. For example, the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales carried out an official inspection and confirmed that this Authority takes prompt action to keep children safe from harm.

 

Safeguarding children is everyone’s business so the opening, only last month, of the MASH a local multi agency safeguarding hub at Ravens Court with the police and key partners was major step forward.  This was just one of a range of initiatives to keep children safe and support families. 

 

The development of a new in-house parent and child foster care service this year with four new foster carers already recruited and working with mums and their babies, will also make a real difference.  It offered an alternative to expensive Out of County and Independent provision.

 

Likewise this week, BCBC launched its campaign for specialist foster carers who can offer emergency respite care and an alternative to residential care.  Members had given their full support to this newest service and investing in re-modelling our two children’s homes.

 

The national performance figures demonstrate that for the fourth year in a row, the County Borough has been ranked first in Wales for ensuring that no looked after children leave school, training or work-based learning schemes without achieving approved qualifications.

 

BCBC was among the top five areas in Wales for the number of local people who are visiting libraries or undertaking physical exercise at our sports and leisure centres, and we can look forward to some very exciting future developments that will capitalise upon this success even further.

 

Our flagship 2lst century School Modernisation Programme continued to move from strength to strength with the opening of new primary schools at Bettws and Brynmenyn, and with work underway on all-new facilities in Pencoed, the Education Department was set to reveal a new primary school at Cwm Garw next year. That’s just Phase A. Members had also committed in recent months to Phase B he added.

 

Efforts to create a new community of residents living at the heart of Bridgend town centre has seen the opening of the new Cwrt Ty Afon development at the Rhiw along with an all-new car park, while the regeneration of Porthcawl has taken a historic leap forward with the unlocking at last of the Salt Lake development site.

 

This was an extremely important development in our regeneration plans, and we will work closely with local Members, the Town Council, businesses and residents of Porthcawl to make the plans a reality.

 

It joined recent developments such as the multi-million pound new coastal defence project that will protect seafront homes and businesses, and the newly renovated award winning Jennings Building.

 

Plans to transform Maesteg Town Hall had also progressed, and we are awaiting the outcome of our latest funding bid that will see the historic old building offer all-new community facilities for local people.

 

BCBC were also pioneering a new, environmentally friendly form of home heating created via the Caerau Minewater project.

 

This would be the first of large scale schemes in the UK, and on a similar theme we were also exploring the potential of sharing excess heat generated at Bridgend Life Centre and making it available to local homes through the Bridgend Heat Network, a first in Wales.

 

Another new development that the Leader was particularly excited about, was the new Enterprise Hub Programme that the Council had recently supported.

 

This was going to support the local economy by establishing all-new business units at Brocastle, Pyle Village Farm Industrial Estate in Pyle, and the Bridgend Science Park.

 

Our partnership with Linc Cymru was delivering new Extra Care facilities for the County Borough with the recently named T? Llwyn derw in Maesteg and Lôn Derw in Ynysawdre.

 

Between these, they would offer 40 Extra Care apartments where vulnerable older people will be able to live independently while accessing round the clock support within a safe, secure environment.

 

As part of the scheme, nineteen affordable homes for older people will also be provided.

 

There have been many other new developments over the last year that Members could be proud of. The move to give young people leaving our care a basic helping hand by exempting them from having to pay Council tax, our support for grieving parents and families by removing child burial fees, the launch of our new My Account service which is making it easier for people to do business with the Council, and more besides, added the Leader.

 

He was sure that the year ahead was going to deliver further new developments that would benefit future generations and communities.

 

Whilst Members were of different groups or parties, he felt that they were all united in a shared purpose to work for the good of all local communities.

 

He wanted to foster and encourage this, and see the Council build upon its many successes and overcome together whatever difficulties it had yet to face.

 

The Leader also wanted further development of Council resources, skills of its staff, and to continue to find new ways of providing crucial services as we looked to the future.

 

With the ongoing support of Members and Officers, he believed that this could be achieved, and that we can once more ensure that Bridgend County Borough Council is prepared, equipped and ready for what lies ahead.

 

 Finally, on behalf of Members, he wished Councillor Gary Thomas and his fiancé Kay best wishes for next Saturday when they were getting married. He hoped that they would enjoy a very happy life together in the future.