Archives for June 2016

EC come, EC go

June 23, 2016 by Martin Leave a Comment

Stop Press

Well now we know the outcome of the referendum and there will be a challenging road ahead. The U.K. will withdraw from the European Union.

Leaving the European Union is, however, far from a straightforward process. We still do not know the precise form that exit will take, but what we do know is that change is unlikely to be immediate for anyone. Full transition out of the EU is likely to take anywhere between two and ten years.

We are already seeing some of the political consequences of this decision with the announcement of the resignation of the Prime Minister, David Cameron.

Of course one thing is certain in the aftermath of the vote to leave: the vast bulk of delivery of public services will need to continue on a day to day basis in parallel with exit negotiations. My personal view is that this will add a degree of further uncertainty to continuing financial austerity in the public sector. I know that is not good news but we had best be prepared for it.

There are many questions to consider including the impact on funding sources and existing structural fund programmes, the future of procurement and commissioning outside of EU rules and the transfer of functions and powers back to the U.K. and the capacity and capability to exercise them, including trade and migration policies.

I would like to thank all the officers involved at the polling stations I visited who made me feel welcome during their busy day and to the Elections Team and all the staff at the count last night who did a magnificent job in completing the task well in advance of the estimated time. I don’t normally like to single people out as I am genuinely indebted to the whole team. But I am particularly grateful to Huw Evans and Alison O’Hara who have guided me through the process from the beginning. Unless you see first-hand what goes on behind the scenes in the run-up to the referendum and on polling day it is hard to imagine the amount of work that is involved.

Cefn Hengoed

On Tuesday I visited Cefn Hengoed Community School to meet with the head teacher, Sue Hollister and Carl Bale, the deputy head. I was made to feel very welcome by them and learned a lot during my visit. To say I was impressed is an understatement. The school has recently received an Excellent inspection from Estyn. It is rare for a school to receive 15 straight Excellent judgements from Estyn, but that is what Cefn Hengoed achieved. As well as that the school has been invited to be an Advisory School in the Schools Challenge Cymru 2015-16 project. I was inspired by what the children and staff have achieved together. They should all feel proud and Sue explained to me how they intend to keep the momentum of improvement going over the coming years.

The achievements of the school are even more extraordinary when you consider that it is located in one of the more deprived wards in the city and in Wales. It is an area I am quite familiar with having been the rent collector there when I was just out of short trousers. Whilst driving round I noticed that significant improvements have been made to the environment and housing in the Bonymaen area and credit must go to the officers and councillors for what has been achieved over the past few years.

On Tuesday I also met with Councillor Christine Richards to discuss a number of issues in her portfolio area, but principally to focus on safeguarding. As you will be aware Councillor Richards is our lead councillor on safeguarding; a key corporate priority for the Council. I will be saying more about this in a future blog but our discussion focussed on making sure that all officers and councillors are familiar with their responsibilities and that safeguarding genuinely becomes everyone’s business.

High 5s

Just a quick reminder that there is less than a month to go for entries to the High 5 awards. The link to the page is attached here.

Praise

Thanks to the Highways Team who responded rapidly to signalling problems on Fabian Way and at Quay Parade on Saturday morning. The potential for chaos was very high indeed. Given the bustle of activity created by the Jazz and Transport festivals this headed off possible criticism and attracted praise from a number of people.

On the subject of praise from the public compliments received are now being included in the Reputation Tracker that is presented to CMT each month. I would ask that all positive comments and compliments are sent on to Corporate Complaints in order that more balanced reports can be prepared in future about complaints and performance.

The concerts at the Liberty Stadium this year have drawn massive crowds and again underlined Swansea as a city of culture. The Manic Street Preachers and Super Furry Animals reminded us of the musical talent that Wales has in abundance. While Lionel Ritchie is not to be found in my collection, his show at the weekend reinforced the message after the Manics’ visit that Swansea knows how to successfully manage major events. Thanks is due here to the combined efforts of the Council and the Stadium Management Company in handling the logistics and making sure everything ran smoothly. I know that Peter Richards and the team in Building Control were praised for their role by Andrew Davies, manager at the Liberty Stadium, and I am also grateful to all the special events and other staff who played their part in ensuring that the fans enjoyed these events safely.

Armed Forces Day

It’ll be a busy Saturday in Castle Square. Not only is the Wales game in Euro 2016 being shown live on the Big Screen, but I’ll be attending the annual Armed Forces Day being held there too. The Armed Forces Day lasts from 10.30am to 4.30pm and it promises to be a colourful occasion. The match, by the way, starts at 5pm.

Well done to our staff in marketing, tourism and events for their work in developing an app for the Wales National Airshow. This is a great example of innovation and commercialism because the app was developed in-house. By purchasing the app, spectators will also be helping to sustain the airshow on an annual basis. Have a look here for more information.

Congratulations to Beth Evans from the commercial services team on completing a parachute jump for charity. Beth’s brave act has succeeded in raising £675 for mental health organisation POBL Cymru. Well done Beth!! There is no chance whatsoever that you will see a photograph of me doing that. If you want to add to Beth’s fundraising efforts you can still donate here.

Our best wishes go to Councillor Robert Francis Davies who was taken ill last week. It was good news to hear he is on the mend and we look forward to his return as soon as he is better.

On Sunday the JCP Half Marathon is back for its third year. It is one of the fastest-growing half marathons in the UK with 8,000 entrants this year; little wonder when you consider the route along our magnificent shoreline. The special events team have been working closely with colleagues across the Council and the organisers to ensure another great day for Swansea. There are a number of road closures so plan your trips carefully on Sunday.

Well that’s it for this week. Good luck once again to our national rugby and football teams as they look to make history (again) tomorrow. Wales in Europe next week? Let’s wait and see.

Innovation

June 17, 2016 by Martin Leave a Comment

For obvious reasons I’m not going to mention football this week. I would rather focus on one of our core values: innovation. On Tuesday I met with the Innovation Community to hear their ideas for the next round of projects following the successful work on behaviours, staff engagement and anti-bullying which will of course continue to be progressed. It was a productive meeting with eight new members attending. We will need a bigger room next time.

We had a long discussion and debate about where to go next and the group concluded that there would be three new work streams; Reward and Recognition (staff morale); Testing Ideas and Breaking down Silos. All staff are welcome to get involved in this work and should be supported to do so by their managers. If you are interested in getting involved or would like to find out more information please contact Leanne Cutts.

‘It’s all about you’

You may recall that as part of last year’s work programme the Innovation Community developed a staff engagement event ‘It’s all about you’ which was held in the Marriott Hotel. It was a real success with nearly 600 staff members attending. A slightly different approach is being taken this year with events being held in different parts of the city. The next ‘It’s all about you’ event will take place at Gors Community Centre on Thursday 30th June. Staff are welcome to drop in at any time between 1pm and 5pm and can attend as part of working time. Please share and promote this event with your teams.

Re-organisation

I know that the subject of local government re-organisation has concerned many staff and councillors over the past months. Early meetings have taken place between local government leaders and the new Minister for Finance and Local Government, Professor Mark Drakeford, AM. The feedback from these has been very positive and discussions have included the future of local government re-organisation in Wales. It is clear that the Minister intends to take a measured approach to this issue and will be visiting all 22 councils over the coming months to seek the views of local government leaders. Councillor Stewart and I met with him yesterday and set out the position in Swansea, emphasising the fact that this is a high performing council with strong leadership and committed staff but that the uncertainty of budget pressures and the prospect of another re-organisation is not helping staff and councillor morale.

It was an excellent meeting and I am confident that the Minister will take on board many of the points we made. It is clear that the previous top-down approach of reducing from 22 to eight or nine councils is well and truly shelved but we need to keep up the momentum of collaboration through the Western Bay Partnership, ERW and the City Deal/City Region. We also need to explore other ways of working together with our neighbouring authorities and partner agencies. I will keep you up to date with any developments on local government reorganisation as things progress.

Development

Council yesterday approved the deposit draft of the Local Development Plan. This is a really important document which, amongst other things, sets out the land use planning policy for the City and County up to 2025. In short it is a blueprint for the city’s future and should be of interest to most, if not all of us. It has been a massive piece of work which follows a laborious but essential process that began back in 2009. It is supported by an enormous database of evidence relating to population trends, economic forecasts, housing projections, health and environmental assessments. It has consumed the working lives of a number of officers and councillors and I am grateful for the efforts they have put in over the last seven years to get us to this position. It is a real achievement of which they should all be proud. The next stage will be a three-month public consultation exercise with a view to finalising the Plan and approving it at Council later this year.

The latest Corporate Health, Safety and Wellbeing Service’s finalised accident statistics for 2015-16 show we have made significant reductions in reportable accidents and lost days due to accidents fell to a record low. It’s not just about protecting our employees but also our customers, contractors and the public. My thanks to all those involved.

Lagoon

I mentioned in my first blog that I would be meeting with the Chairman of the Independent Review into Tidal Lagoons, the Rt Hon Charles Hendry. The review is assessing whether tidal lagoons can play a cost-effective role as part of the UK energy mix. The Leader, Councillor Robert Francis Davies and Councillor Andrea Lewis and I met him last Friday with our counterparts in neighbouring councils. We stressed the importance of the lagoon project from the more obvious environmental wins (reduced emissions and reliable low carbon electricity), to positive impacts on the local economy and regeneration plans and beyond this to social inclusion and health benefits.

The three-year construction phase is estimated to have an impact on Wales of more than £500 million. During peak construction, an estimated 1,900 full time jobs would be created or supported, covering a range of skill levels. Once constructed, up to 181 jobs would be created or supported throughout the operational life of the lagoon. From a tourism perspective it is estimated that the lagoon would attract 70-100,000 visitors per annum with an estimated annual economic impact of approximately £76 million per year.

We will be making a written submission to the review board before the end of July but the meeting went well and Charles left with a clear understanding of the strength of feeling in south-west Wales.

The lagoon would make an excellent venue for sports events and, on that subject, belated congratulations to all those who took part in the first Swansea Triathlon. It was a great success but major credit must go to the council officers from cultural services, telematics, transportation and streetscene who provided the support and infrastructure for the event. These are not easy projects to co-ordinate and deliver and the team working on this one did a fantastic job.

Neighbourhood Support

There’s been some difficult news for colleagues in the Neighbourhood Support Unit in Housing. Russell Malt, a much-valued member of the team has died suddenly.

Russell had worked in the NSU since October 2014. He was highly valued by his managers and well-liked by his colleagues in the team and across Landlord Services . My thoughts are with them and his family and friends at this time.

Events

On the subject of events it promises to be a grrreat weekend for Jazz lovers with the return of the Swansea International Jazz Festival which starts on Friday evening and finishes on Sunday. There is a mixture of paid-for and free events taking place in and around the marina and the Dylan Thomas Theatre. Here is a link to the programme.

This weekend also sees the return of the Swansea Festival of Transport, with hundreds of vehicles being rolled into the city centre. It promises to be a busy weekend and cultural events like the jazz festival and the festival of transport bring increased footfall into the City which is to be welcomed. Let’s hope the weather holds!

Congratulations

My congratulations to the many pupils from schools across Swansea who represented their communities at the Urdd Eisteddfod in Flintshire at half-term. The Urdd is one of Europe’s biggest youth cultural festivals and schools qualify to participate at the event only by winning local and regional rounds held in the spring months. My thanks to the pupils, their parents and their teachers for their efforts to put Swansea on the map at such an important event.

Congratulations also to Tanya Nash and to the council’s Scrutiny Team who were shortlisted for awards for their best-practice approach to their work. Tanya, who is Sustainable Development team leader, was a runner-up in the Next Generation Leader category of the Leading Wales Awards earlier this week. And last night the officer and member Scrutiny Team were shortlisted in the MJ Awards in London last night in the Excellence and Governance in Scrutiny category.

Sorry, can’t help myself. Good luck to Wales against the All Blacks tomorrow and against Russia on Monday night!

Regenerating Our City Centre

June 9, 2016 by Martin 4 Comments

Occasionally I’ll be using part of my blog to update everyone with progress against our Corporate Priorities. This week the focus is on the city centre.

In February, 1941, Swansea was targeted by the German air force in a series of bombing raids popularly known as the Three Night Blitz. The city centre was almost completely flattened; 230 people were killed and more than 7,000 were left homeless.

The following decades saw attempts to regenerate the core retail area. Some, for example The Quadrant, were successful while others, most notably the St David’s Shopping Centre, were not. Overall the city centre is failing to achieve its potential. It has too few residents and workers, dated public realm and limited, poor quality office provision. Unless this is addressed the retail and leisure offer in the city centre will not improve and the region will decline. In the modern economy cities are the engines of economic growth and so this is a priority for the Council and the whole of South West Wales through the Swansea Bay City Region Board.

The response of the Council in recent years has been to develop a plan in the form of the Swansea City Centre Strategic Framework and to encourage a programme of development on key sites. You will probably be aware that the team in Economic Regeneration and Planning are working closely with development partners, Rivington and Trebor, on the St David’s and Civic Centre sites (weblinks).

Over the coming months we’re likely to see significant activity in the city centre and I’ll try to keep you up to date on developments in my blog. This week saw the announcement that the Council is considering the future of Castle Square and, subject to the outcome of the public open space process, will draw up a development brief for consultation. I would encourage everyone to respond to this. Also, the new development at Mariner Street was approved at Planning Committee this week and this will generate activity and footfall in the High Street.

Corporate Management Team (formerly the Executive Board) this week considered the next Staff Survey following some interesting and valuable feedback from the Innovation Community. Of particular interest to me is the proposal to improve the survey process so that more people are likely to take part. Over the past two years the survey has provided an important insight into the reality and the perceptions of working for the Council and we’ve been able to act together to tackle some of the issues, for example through the Show Bullying the Red Light campaign. The survey will take place this autumn and will be available online with hard copies being made available via managers, at our main sites, in staff canteens and libraries. There will be more information about this in future blogs.

As part of the senior management review Council agreed in April that a new post of Chief Transformation Officer be established to drive forward the modernisation of the Council. The post will be advertised in the next few weeks but we need to increase the pace of this work immediately. On Tuesday Mike Hawes and I interviewed candidates to act up into this position until the longer term appointment is made. I am delighted to announce that Sarah Caulkin has been appointed and will take up the post immediately. The implementation of the new model for business support is the priority and this will impact upon us all over the coming weeks and months.

I was shocked and saddened to hear of the sudden death of Ian Thomas, Principal Officer for Health and Safety last Sunday. I have known Ian for many years and worked with him in Housing, Business Support and more recently in his role with Corporate Health and Safety. Ian was a respected and well liked officer who will be deeply missed. My thoughts go to his family, friends and colleagues at their loss.

The EU Referendum date is almost upon us and I visited the Elections team last week as they sent out the postal votes. I’m grateful for their hard work and look forward to seeing them again on the day of the Referendum. This is an important decision for Swansea, Wales and the UK and I hope as many of us as possible will exercise their right to vote on June 23.

On the subject of voting I’d like to take the opportunity to remind everyone that nominations for this year’s High 5 awards close on July 22. The High 5 Awards are open to any child or young person in three age ranges (up to 13, 14-19, and 20-25) or group and they have to either be a resident, educated in or receiving support in Swansea. They celebrate the inspirational achievements of children and young people, culminating in the Awards Ceremony at the Liberty Stadium in the autumn. Our former Chief Executive, Jack Straw, has agreed to be on the judging panel for the awards.

Good luck to our Scrutiny team and Members who’ll find out next week if they’ve won an MJ Award for ‘Excellence in Governance and Scrutiny’

And finally good luck to the Wales national football team in the first match of the European Championships against Slovakia on Saturday. The match kicks off at 5pm and will be shown live on the big screen in Castle Square – well done to our Events team. I know football isn’t everyone’s taste but it’s the first occasion in my lifetime that Wales have qualified for a major international football competition so it certainly is a reason for celebration. Come on Wales!

Big Boots

June 2, 2016 by Martin 6 Comments

Welcome to my new blog. I think it is only appropriate that I start my first blog with a note of thanks to our previous Chief Executive, Jack Straw, and to wish him all the best for the future. A huge number of staff turned out last Friday to say farewell to Jack and to hear me describe his major achievements (and a few less positive stories of course). I owe a great debt to Jack for his leadership and friendship during the 27 years we have known each other and I wish him well in whatever he chooses to do in the coming years. He has certainly left big boots to fill!

The leaving party was an emotional event. Jack was certainly quite “emotional” by the end of it. The highlight of the evening for me was the video message from Swansea City FC midfielder, Leon Britton, Sue Hollister, the head teacher at Cefn Hengoed School and most importantly from some of the young people who had won High 5 awards. Although he was grateful for all those messages I know the words of thanks from the young people meant more to him than anything Leon, Sue or the rest of us could ever have said. One of the roles I most look forward to inheriting from Jack is the leadership of the High 5s.

Lee Wenham gave Jack a bound copy of all his blogs as one of his leaving gifts and he really appreciated that. A number of colleagues have asked me to continue to write a weekly Chief Executive’s blog and, although I cannot promise that it will be on a par with Jack’s, I am committed to continuing to do so. So here goes.

Following the Senior Management Review I am pleased to announce that Mike Hawes has been appointed as our Director of Resources from 1^st June. I have known Mike for many years and his appointment will help to stabilise the management of the organisation following the departure of Jack and Dean Taylor. On Tuesday Mike and I attended the Budget and Performance review group where, along with senior councillors, we consider the main issues relating to finance and service performance that face the Council. It’s certainly a challenging time for everyone and Mike’s knowledge and experience will be essential in developing and driving the budget strategy for us. I will keep you up to date with developments.

Yesterday I received a briefing on the Counter Terrorism Local Profile along with Chris Sivers, Director of People and future Chair of the Western Bay Contest Board. The board is charged with making sure all agencies plan and work together to combat the threat of terrorism and make sure that appropriate arrangements are in place.

A related issue is the impact and disruption of the recent school bomb hoaxes in the region. There have been many examples of this across the UK and the police take hoaxes extremely seriously because they divert police resources and cause disruption and alarm to the public. Last week saw the evacuation of 400 pupils from Gwyrosydd Primary School. All reports indicate that this was handled in an exemplary way by the head teacher, Jonathan Atter, his team and the pupils. A big thank you to all involved in the evacuation and in helping to reassure the children and parents. Guidance has been sent to all schools in the city and this includes the procedures that must be followed in the event of any future incidents.

The coming weeks and months will be critical for Swansea. The crisis in the steel industry is a major concern. Although Tata’s major facilities are not within Swansea’s boundaries most of us know at least one person or family that would be affected by closure, many of whom live in Swansea. The steel industry contributes 5.8% of the output of the Welsh economy and many other businesses in the city and the region will suffer if the rescue package currently being prepared is not successful. The Leader and I have been supporting the Swansea Bay City Region Board, led by Sir Terry Matthews, to do what we can to help shape the case for continued steel production in Wales.

On a similar note the Leader and I will be meeting the Chairman of the Government Independent Review into tidal lagoons, the Rt Hon Charles Hendry, next week. Our job will be to explain the importance of the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon to our city and the local economy. More on this in future blogs.

It’s always nice to have some good news, so I’m delighted to offer my congratulations to County Archivist Kim Collis who’s been awarded the prestigious Distinguished Service Award by the Archives and Records Association of the UK and Ireland for services to archives in Wales.

Similarly, a number of our attractions and events are up for a Swansea Life Award next month. They include the Admiral Swansea Bay 10k, Swansea Museum, Christmas by Candlelight at the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea Market, the Wales National Air Show, Proms in the Park, Waterfront Winterland, Singleton Botanical Gardens, Clyne Gardens, Plantasia, Penyrheol Leisure Centre, Swansea Grand Theatre and the Swansea Library Service. Well done to all the staff involved in these.

Go to SLVOTE16 to vote by Wednesday June 8. Please encourage as many people to vote for these as possible. Our recent customer feedback shows how highly these events are thought of by the public.

The Brangwyn Hall has again been awarded a Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor, the world’s leading travel website. Brangwyn customers have given the venue a 93% average satisfaction rating on TripAdvisor. Over 65% of visitors also gave the attraction the top five-star rating, making the Brangwyn Hall Swansea’s favourite venue for concerts and shows. Thank you to all the staff.

And finally thanks must go to all the officers and councillors who have worked tirelessly on the Hafod Copperworks Project. Earlier this week the Heritage Lottery Fund announced that the Council has been successful in the first round bid for a £3.75m funding bid that could see restoration of historically significant buildings and the Penderyn whisky company invest £4.2 million in the expansion of their business into the city with a new distillery and visitor centre at the former Hafod Morfa Copperworks site. Judging by the amount of whisky people bought Jack on Friday night it will not come a moment too soon.

Phil’s new blog

June 2, 2016 by webmaster 2 Comments

Phil’s new blog will start on 3rd June, 2016.