The Leader reminded all members that Darren Mepham was leaving the authority in the New Year to take up a new role as Chief Executive of Barnett and Southgate further education college in north London.

He took the opportunity to offer Darren his congratulations. The Authority had made significant progress in the six years that he had been employed here, and it had faced some of the most challenging circumstances this Council has ever seen.

This has included developments with the change in health board, working through difficult financial challenges to deliver a balanced budget and sound finances, achieving further collaboration with our neighbouring councils like the shared regulatory services, radical changes to streamline the managements of all directorate including establishing a new directorate which has brought together the majority of our corporate services and of course he has reduced senior management costs by over a third.

Darren would be with BCBC for the next three months and will continue to play a hands-on leading role in that time. As an authority, we would be seeking to appoint a permanent replacement to the post as soon as possible, and he had been, and would be speaking further with Cabinet colleagues and group leaders about the interim arrangements required to put in place.

Darren will be here for two more Council meetings between now and starting his new role so today wasn’t a time to say goodbye.

We have a very capable and skilled senior management team in place who between them have decades of experience, and the Leader was very confident that our ambitious programmes will all continue to move forward.

Welsh Government has confirmed that EU funding of £1.5m is to be invested in Porthcawl’s all-new water sports centre at Rest Bay. The funding is being made available as part of Welsh Government’s new Tourism Attractor Destination programme, which has been launched by Visit Wales to create 13 must-see tourist destinations. The water sports centre will be one of these, and is designed to appeal to water sports enthusiasts throughout South Wales and beyond. Work has started, and a ‘selfie board’ has been erected on fencing placed around the building site to minimise the visual impact of the works, and demonstrate our efforts to ensure Porthcawl continues to thrive and grow as one of Wales’s premier coastal resorts.

The Leader announced that he was delighted to attend the official opening of the all-new Brynmenyn Primary School by the First Minister last week. The £9m school is just one of the latest to be delivered as part of our flagship 21st Century school modernisation programme, and follows hot on the heels of the official opening of the new Betws Primary.

The former premises located at Bryn Road was more than a hundred years old, and could not expand due to being surrounded by common land.

The new school is twice the size and offers a nursery, 14 large classrooms equipped with modern learning technology, state-of-the-art educational facilities and more than 14,000 square metres of specially designed open space. This is contrast to the former site which had a small yard and did not have a single blade of grass.

It’s new home next to Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen benefits from a dedicated car park and safe drop-off and pick-up zones, and also incorporates a memorial to a school heroine, Sarah Jane Howell, a former assistant teacher who died in 1911 while saving a pupil from drowning.

The old school building, partly because of its hillside location was simply not accessible for children with significant physical disabilities One of the many advantages of the new home is that local children who could not be educated at the old location can now attend their community school. Hearing the mum of one of the little boys who is now at Brynmenyn because of the fully accessible modern facilities and what it means to her was a reminder of the difference that this investment has made, as was listening to the emotional speeches of the Chair of Governors and Head Teacher at the official opening. 

Brynmenyn Primary has a proud history behind it, and thanks to the efforts of everyone who has contributed towards the delivery of this project, the school also has a bright future ahead of it.