Work continues on delivering our growth deal with the Welsh and UK Governments. Whilst the recent problems facing Carmarthenshire County Council at the Wellness Village continue to attract media coverage the remaining projects are progressing well. On Wednesday the Corporate Management Team worked on the business case for the Swansea Central Phase 1 scheme. This is the key scheme that contributes to the Council’s Corporate Plan objective to transform our economy and infrastructure. The project design is also fully compatible with Welsh Government’s adopted policies and best practice on place making, economic regeneration, and reflects the objectives identified in the Well-being of Future Generations Act, A Prosperous Wales and other relevant guidance. It is a massive piece of work but there is still much to do if we are to keep to the October reporting timeline. CMT will be devoting further time to this in the coming weeks and I will keep you informed of progress.
We also discussed the recently advertised PIN notices whereby we are seeking a Joint Venture Partner with the relevant experience, capacity and resources to deliver redevelopment of:
• Site 9
• St Thomas Station
• Hafod Copperworks/ Morfa Leisure Destination
• Former Oxford Street School
• Civic Centre Site
These schemes are also important in delivering our corporate regeneration priority and we will shortly be reporting progress to Cabinet. There is a huge amount of work being carried out by our officers on these projects which are essential to the City’s fortunes and ambitions.
CMT also considered progress on our Services in the Community Commissioning Review and proposed some changes to its current scope. In future the Digital and Customer Contact strategies will be the main focus of this project, disposal of assets will continue to be a priority and the key principles of the cross-cutting agenda will continue; rationalisation, integration and co-location where appropriate. We will be discussing this with Cabinet shortly and I hope staff will engage heavily in this as it moves forward.
GCSE results
Our schools and pupils have celebrated GCSE results well above the Welsh average following on from last week’s excellent A-levels. In the GCSEs all the main indicators were good with most subjects showing results which were better than the national picture.
The figures show 21.2% of city pupils gained A* and A grades in their WJEC exams, which is significantly better than the 18.4% for those in Wales as a whole. A total of 97.5% of GCSE examination entries in Swansea were passed (grades A* to G), and tops the Welsh pass rate for 2019 of 97.2%.
In Swansea there was a total of 21,396 WJEC full course GCSE entries in 44 different subjects/syllabuses. In the key core subjects of Welsh First Language, English Language and Mathematics, the Swansea overall results compare very well to the national results.
I would like to congratulate all the pupils and thank our staff, our schools and teachers for their work supporting young people to achieve their potential.
On the subject of education I held my last meeting with Geraint Rees, the outgoing Managing Director of our regional school improvement consortium, ERW. Geraint has done a great job of getting ERW back on the rails after a shaky couple of years and is leaving to assist our neighbours in Powys with their education service. Next week I will be meeting the next interim MD, Andi Morgan, who will leave his job as Head of Education Services at Carmarthenshire Council to take over this important role. I will be working closely with Andi to continue making progress in improving outcomes for learners across the region.
Congratulations
A big thank you to the Family Information Service team who’ve been taking their mascot Finley to family events across Swansea over the summer, encouraging young families to access their services. They’ve met up with hundreds of youngsters and their parents.
Six of our parks – Clyne Gardens, Victoria Park, Brynmill Park, Cwmdonkin Park, Parc Llewelyn and the Botanical & Ornamental Gardens at Singleton – have won Green Flags this year.
The scheme is run by Keep Wales Tidy and is judged by green space experts who assess them against criteria including horticultural standards, cleanliness, sustainability and community involvement.
Congratulations to all involved.
The awards won by our Swansea parks under the Keep Wales Tidy initiative, are something to be commended for sure. However, I am increasingly concerned at the amount of rubbish on our streets. People should be accountable for disposing of their waste responsibly and I wonder what is in place to encourage residents and visitors to Swansea to take their rubbish with them? I personally see very little in the way of advertising and education on the subject. Seeing that we are so close to the sea, I get so frustrated seeing plastic bags and rubbish blowing about and ending up in the sea. With the Council’s funding increasingly stretched, the answer lies in encouraging residents to not only look after their own waste, but to take responsibility for removing rubbish that they see around the city.
Hi Caron, thank you for your comments. As a keen walker I see plenty of examples where people drop litter. A huge amount of effort already goes into making sure our streets and commercial areas are cleansed regularly. We run litter campaigns where our message is very clear about the public’s responsibility to dispose of litter properly. Our litter enforcement team also targets those who throw litter on the ground. It’s encouraging also to see more and more community groups doing their bit and organising litter picks in communities or on our beaches and we support these groups by providing litter picking equipment and collecting the waste they retrieve. Thank you for your comments and I will see what more we can do to encourage people to behave responsibly.
Best wishes, Phil
” The project design is also fully compatible with Welsh Government’s adopted policies and best practice on place making, economic regeneration, and reflects the objectives identified in the Well-being of Future Generations Act, A Prosperous Wales and other relevant guidance. It is a massive piece of work but there is still much to do if we are to keep to the October reporting timeline. CMT will be devoting further time to this in the coming weeks and I will keep you informed of progress”
I wonder whether all these plans and policies are the reason why the ground work is not being done.
1. HMO problems in Brynmill and Uplands. They have not gone away and are just ignored
2. Drug dealing and drug use in Brynmill and Uplands area. County lines everywhere.
3. Theft
4. Burglary
5. No police presence on the street
6. No street workers on the street
7. Residents are frightened and horrified about what is going on in the area. You don’t mention the Social Services and Wellbeing Act and its identified objectives. All I ever hear is the Future Generation Act.
I would love you to come back to me and explain what the plan is and would you agree that this is also a massive piece of work.
07784106531
Hi,
Thanks for your comments and the points you’ve raised.
The council has been aware of the problems related with HMOs and we’ve been working with ward councillors and residents to address their concerns. Earlier this year we adopted a new policy year which restricts the number of HMOs in both Brynmill and Uplands and our officers continue to work closely with landlords and tenants to minimise other issues.
In terms of drug dealing and County Lines, this is primarily an issue for the police, although we obviously work closely with them. For instance, we are part of a multi-agency task group working to combat many of the issues you raise that are prevalent in the city centre – street working, substance misuse and anti-social behaviour and crime. We’re working with the health board, police and other agencies such as Barod to tackle these issues in a concerted and co-ordinated way. Cllr Rob Stewart, the Council Leader, is spearheading this work along with officers from across many of our services.
In the context of the city centre redevelopment, a number of Acts and strategies are guiding what we’re doing, my blog mentioned just a few.
We face a growing number of challenges, many of which I’ll be addressing through my blog in the coming weeks and months.
Regards,
Phil