The Leader advised that the Council were about to embark on this year’s budget consultation, and will be once again encouraging local residents to take part and assist in re-shaping Bridgend’s future. As part of this, we would be carrying out a full publicity and marketing campaign that will take into account community events, news releases, advertising and more.

Social media will play a major role in this process, and he hoped that all elected Members will get behind the campaign, and encourage as many people to take part as possible. We will be asking residents what services they think should be prioritised as the Authority seeks to cover a £35m shortfall in funding by 2023. It is all too easy to see only the cut and not the reasoning behind it, so we need Members to help us to communicate some very difficult issues.

As Members knew, the Council had already saved £30m by doing things like reducing our staff by more than 400, working with partners such as Halo, or reducing services such as public conveniences, street cleansing, youth clubs and adult learning. This has been undertaken while also delivering essential investment into new schools, housing for older people, vital sea defences and more. But as Members were also aware, a critical point had now been reached, and some very hard decisions still had yet to be made.

The next few years were going to be the most challenging yet as we are forced to consider important areas such as schools and nursery education, social services for children, older residents and disabled people, and more. This is why the Council needed to fully engage with local people, and he was appealing to all Councillors, including members of Town and Community Councils, to help in delivering these.

Members would soon be receiving an invitation to a special consultation event. This is being arranged so that it can take place alongside full Council on Wednesday 24 October, and will provide Members with an opportunity to give their views and find out more about what we are trying to achieve. In addition, Councillors would be sent full details of the community events that are being organised, along with information advising residents about the different ways in which they can take part.

The budget consultation will take place between the 24 September and the 18 November. There would be ample opportunity to take part, so he asked those present to help spread the word about this very important opportunity.

Finally, the Leader congratulated Mr. Lindsay Harvey who had recently been appointed to the post of Corporate Director – Education and Family Support, after occupying this role on an interim basis. This appointment had been made by the Appointments Committee, a body comprising cross-party Members.

The Leader was aware that this job was Mr. Harvey’s dream post, and he knew that he would be very successful in effectively carrying out the role of the job as he had done on a temporary basis for quite a few months already.