Regenerating Our City Centre

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!