Yesterday I joined councillors and officers in the Council Chamber for our first multi-location cabinet meeting. It’s amongst the first formal meetings to be run using this new hybrid approach. It felt good sitting again with colleagues in the Chamber, albeit with limited numbers. The meeting went very smoothly thanks to the efforts of Darren Richards, Huw Evans, Nerys Williams and Councillor Andrew Stevens. I hope this form of meeting will become commonplace as we take cautious steps forward in the coming months, but it couldn’t have happened without the commitment and skills of our officers and elected members.
The highlight for me was the report on our Annual Review of Performance 2020/21. If you haven’t had a chance to read this report I’d strongly recommend it. I’ve worked in local government for 36 years and I think it’s the best summary of our collective efforts I’ve seen during that time. At the very least a simple reading of the case studies will reinforce our understanding of the breadth and importance of our services to the public. Huge thanks go to Richard Rowlands, Jo Portwood, Suzy Richards and Simon Jones along with all others who’ve contributed. And a massive thanks to all of you for the efforts you’ve put in during the past year.
Education
One of the things I’ve missed during the pandemic is my visits to Swansea schools. So it was with some anticipation I turned up at Llanrhidian to see the work being done by this pioneer school. It’s set in my favourite part of Gower, but the issues here are no different to other schools and are made particularly acute by the age and layout of the main building. Headteacher Donna Caswell explained the challenges the school has faced, including the response to the pandemic. The level of innovation by our schools is impressive and this is particularly true in Llanrhidian. Space is precious and the school has made the most of it and overcome some real difficulties to provide an outstanding learning environment. And the outdoor facilities were even better, giving the children a number of areas for outdoor learning and play.
My visit coincided with Shwmae Day so the tour was punctuated by every child saying “SHWMAE” to me. I had a very helpful discussion with Donna over coffee and the welcome shown by her, the staff and the young learners was fantastic. Thanks to Donna and her team for taking time out of their hectic day to help me understand better the reality of teaching during the pandemic.
Staying on the theme of education some important milestones were reached this week in the transformation of our regional education consortium from ERW to Partneriaeth. We’ve now had in-principle agreement from the councils in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire to the final elements of our legal agreement for Partneriaeth. This has been a huge amount of work and I’m very grateful to our officers, in particular to Debbie Smith and Helen Morgan Rees. I met with the current ERW managers last week as part of the consultation exercise on the changes and it’s clear many people are seeing a much brighter future for our regional consortium given the slightly chequered history of ERW. There’s a real enthusiasm and a refocus on supporting our schools regionally to secure the best outcome for all our learners. We’ll be asking Cabinet to approve the legal agreement in the next few weeks.
Security
We were all shocked by the recent killing Sir David Amess MP. Following from the murder five years ago of MP Jo Cox, it highlighted once again the dangers many politicians face in carrying out their duties. We’ve been reviewing our own policies and procedures and will be presenting a report to our Democratic Services Committee in the coming weeks.
Great news
I mentioned last week that news on the lagoon was not far away and now it looks like there’ll be an announcement on Monday. If so, this could truly transform our local economy and put Swansea at the forefront of renewable energy technology. It’s very exciting and I’m grateful to our officers and members who’ve been working so hard on this since before the pandemic.
Plans are well underway for the city’s main Christmas events and attractions. Thanks to all staff involved so far! It’s a major undertaking in normal times and even more so right now. We’ll be doing all we can to keep visitors safe as they enjoy the city centre parade, lights switch-on, Christmas market and trees, new lights, Grand Theatre panto and Waterfront Winterland.
Thank you
Pupils and staff from YGG Tan-y-lan joined the Leader and members of the Cabinet for a tour of the new build which is nearing completion and it’s safe to say they were hugely impressed with what they saw. This £9.9m development has been built during the pandemic and it’s a huge credit to our education team working with contractors Kier that the school will be ready for next term.
Thanks to our highways team who had another busy time on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning when storms and wind brought flooding to some of our communities. The team was busy clearing culverts and unblocking drains to help keep traffic safe and on the move.
Leave a Reply