Archives for June 2023

I was delighted to be among the guests at Gower College Swansea’s annual Student Awards event on Monday night. We have a strong relationship with the college, working closely with them to deliver training in a range of areas, including apprenticeships and the Management Development programme as part of our Workforce Strategy. Consequently, I was very pleased that this important collaboration was recognised at the awards when I accepted the Gower College Employer Partner of the Year award on behalf of the council.

The event was a wonderful occasion, full of colour, energy and optimism which inspired everyone there, including me. I heard a lot of uplifting stories about students overcoming challenges to reach their goals and prepare for the next stages in their careers.

Staff engagement

One of my priorities is staff engagement and the group had another catch-up yesterday. There was a useful discussion about progress on our new behaviours and values project which focuses on how we act, make decisions and shape relationships and services our residents depend on. The group also looked at the latest feedback on staff recognition and long-service awards ahead of a CMT report next month. If you’ve views on either of these issues, please do let me know.

Innovation

This week the Leader and I also caught up with DST Innovations Batri on the latest developments for Blue Eden and the Tidal Lagoon. Given its impact on our ambition to be a net carbon zero city by 2050, it was reassuring to hear of continuing momentum to deliver this transformational project for Swansea.  Among the delegation we met was the regional representative for HSBC Bank who will be supporting funding for this private sector scheme. It’s a positive commitment in the current difficult economic climate.

Metro

The leader, Mark Wade and myself I attended a workshop this week staged by the Corporate Joint Committee of neighbouring local authorities in south-west Wales. It was about the next steps for the regional transport plan and energy strategy. Included was a discussion about the Swansea Bay Metro initiative which aims to support economic growth here with a modern, integrated public transport network. It’ll have an impact on our own transport plans, so I’ll keep you posted on developments.

Thank you

It won’t have escaped your notice the Wales Airshow is back this weekend. It’s a huge undertaking welcomed by residents, tourists and businesses who do very well out of an event attracting around 250,000 people to Swansea. My thanks to all involved.

My congratulations to the team at Dylan Thomas Centre who have been shortlisted for the best small museum category in the Kids in Museums Awards 2023. Good luck with the finals in October.

And also congratulations to four of our building services’ apprentices shortlisted at the recent Swansea Bay Construction Support Group Awards. Nominated were Jake Thomas, Zack Shelley-Ranson, Ryan Gibbons and Ceiron Redden. Zack won best construction apprentice for plastering and Ryan won the award for bricklaying as well as the Overall Construction Apprentice award.

I want to say a big thank you to Martin Bignell, our Tree Services team leader who reaches 30 years of service with us next week. Martin is an expert in his field and his commitment to managing our significant tree stock is to be applauded.

And, finally, we’re bidding farewell this week to Steve Phillips after more than 42 years service. He’s a mechanical estimator with our building services team and will be much missed. Steve is one of the first people met when I joined Building Services’ estimating team 32 years ago and I really enjoyed working with him, except for his terrible card playing.  Thanks Steve, and good luck with your next chapter.

Following my personal message last week I’ve been overwhelmed by the kind words and positive response from staff and members across the council. I wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone and also highlight that so far we have over 20 extra blood donors signed up, which the Welsh Blood Service advise is one of the most successful promotion campaigns, so a special thank you to those who have taken the time to book a blood donation. As mentioned we hope to have a session soon in the Civic Centre and I’ll let you know when a date is arranged.

MJ Awards

Later today we’ll find out if we’ve been named the best council in the UK at this year’s MJ Awards. Whether we win it or not, I want to thank all of you for the tremendous work and effort you put in. To be recognised in this way is a reflection of our staff and the great work you do for the people of Swansea. And congratulations to our More Homes team who are also recognised separately at the awards. I’ll update you on the results.

Let’s do our bit

As part of our commitment to becoming a net zero council by 2030, we’re asking staff to take practical steps in their everyday work. Those responsible for individual premises and offices can take practical steps like ensuring lights are switched and heating thermostats are used properly to help reduce our energy use. Even things like switching off computers and not leaving things on “stand-by” will all help. We’re probably used to doing this at home due to the cost of energy, so it’s about taking similar measures in work. We’re retrofitting solar panels and other energy-efficient steps in buildings, but let’s all play our part too.

No wasted effort!

As part of our annual performance reporting the WLGA has just provided feedback on the cost of providing waste services in 2021/22, and our costs were the lowest in Wales. That’s great news, and I’d like to thank all the staff in waste management for their efforts – it’s really appreciated.

New workspace for staff

You can now use a new and informal workspace in the Guildhall. It has a variety of tables and seating options including meeting rooms and a vending machine offering snacks. Healthier vending options and a coffee machine are also due to arrive soon. There are also plans to install equipment that’ll make it possible to welcome guests and colleagues by video link. The new space is in Room 153, the former rates hall at the heart of Guildhall’s level one. It’s part of our accommodation strategy and the ongoing relocation of many staff from the Civic Centre. And this is a timely reminder that under our agile working policy staff are expected to come into the office in line with service demands and expectations, including where face-to-face meetings are needed.

Sad incident

Sadly, a member of a local choir passed away just before they were due to perform at the Brangwyn Hall last weekend. One of our staff, Keith Morris, came to the gentleman’s aid. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of Keith and choir members, he passed away. I’d like to thank Keith for his care and professionalism in such testing and sad circumstances. The Leader and myself have also passed on our best wishes to the gentleman’s loved ones.

I normally like to fill the blog with positive messages but today I’m going to promote a cause that’s become very important to me.

It’s Blood Donor Week and I’d like to ask you to consider promoting the cause as well as possibly donating blood.  I’m doing this because about three years ago I was diagnosed with a form of Leukaemia or blood cancer for which there is treatment but it’s something I’ll always have to live with. After being on watch and wait until January, I then needed to start treatment and also needed several blood transfusions totalling 25 units which pretty much kept me going. So I think it’s a small way of giving something back by raising the profile of Blood Donor Wales and hopefully attracting some more donors along the way. If you’re able to, please book a lifesaving appointment using the following link https://wbs.wales/SwanCoun and share the link and banners with friends and family as it would be nice to get at a few new donors as a result of using the link. I know many staff used to give very generously when the Welsh Blood Service staged donation events at Civic Centre before the pandemic. We’re working with the service to re-introduce sessions at Civic in the coming months and I’ll keep you posted on that.

Throughout this I’ve been fortunate to be on a close monitoring regime, and as well as the transfusions at the same time I started chemotherapy and immunotherapy and a series of blood transfusions. Whilst it’s early days, I’m pleased to say these appear to be working, and although I have a few more months ahead of me, I expect to go into remission at the end of it. Fortunately, I’ve been able to work flexibly around my treatment during this period and I’m grateful for the support I’ve received. Occasionally, I’ve been unable to attend all of the meetings or events that I’d have liked, and I’m sorry if I didn’t manage to make one of yours

It’s also my intention shortly to also give some visibility to blood cancer which is less well known and also once fully fit I want to carry out some fundraising activities to support cancer charities. I also have to give a special mention to our outstanding NHS, without whom I very much doubt I’d be able to send this message to you all today.

I hope this hasn’t come as too much of a shock and I can assure you all that I’ll continue to give 100% to my role, I’ve no intention of going anywhere anytime soon and it’s great to be getting back to normal.

Human rights city

We’re hosting a major human rights event today with stakeholders from across the city coming on board. The idea is that reps from public, private and third-sector organisations will hear about our priorities and will help develop their own action plans to tackle these priorities. Similarly, we as a council will be drafting our own action plan that’ll filter down to each service area to ensure we’re embedding human rights in our work and services.

Skatepark official opening

It was great to see the opening of the new skatepark along the seafront in West Cross. This scheme wasn’t without its difficulties, but well done to Jamie Rewbridge and others for helping to make it happen. Hopefully, we’ll be delivering more facilities across Swansea.

Scrutiny

The annual scrutiny work planning conference which allows councillors to set their scrutiny work will focus on the coming year. This is really important as scrutiny helps to review what the council has done to help learn lessons for the future. Setting the work plan also gives officers certainty over the areas of our work that’ll be scrutinised by councillors who are also trying to align the programme with Governance and Audit committee and Transformation committees. It was a very positive meeting and I look forward to us working with scrutiny and its members in the year ahead.

More ministerial visits

I mentioned last week a visit from the Welsh Government Minister and yesterday we hosted Glynne Jones, the director of the Secretary of State’s Office, part of the UK Government, to show him the great regeneration work we’re doing in Swansea. The likes of Copr Bay and City Deal projects are helping to lift our economy. It was good to meet Glynne and share our thoughts with him and our further plans for the city. Thanks to all the officers involved in the visit and the delivery of all of our projects.

We’ve had more good news with an economic report showing Swansea will be one of the fastest growing cities in the UK by 2024. This comes on the back of our efforts to regenerate the city through the City Deal initiative and attract private sector investment to boost jobs. It’s really important because our local economy, which affects people’s well-being and lifestyles, in turn has an impact on our council services including social services, housing, education and finance. 

PWC’s Good Growth for Cities study says cities have the opportunity to lead the response to current challenges including cost of living and jobs by working with the private sector. It’s one of the reasons we’re working with the likes of Urban Splash to transform a number of city centres sites, with Skyline to bring a modern tourist attraction and with DST to put us at the forefront of green energy.

Building on this the leader and I met with Rebecca Evans, the Welsh Government Minister for Finance and Local Government, this week and visited existing and future regeneration projects including Y Storfa, Copr Bay North, Castle Gardens and 71-72 Kingsway. It was a positive meeting and I’m grateful to officers for all their work on these sites.

I also went to the launch of UWTSD’s Innovation Matrix, for business development which is a strand of our City Deal project that’s already delivered the Arena and the former Oceana nightclub site 71/72 Kingsway.

Climate Change

We need your help to tackle climate change. We’ve developed a strategy to guide us to becoming a net zero council by 2030, but we need the help of all staff to reach our targets. That’s why I’d encourage staff to complete two new e-learning modules now available by heading here and searching for ‘climate change’. The first module gives a general background to the science around climate change and the nature emergency, while the second module looks at what we can all do to make a difference in Swansea. You can also head here for hints and tips on how to save energy, help nature and save water.

At the same time, we’re also exploring hydrogen as an energy source which is why I’m attending a major conference hosted by the Western Gateway today. A hydrogen manufacturing facility and the potential to power vehicles with hydrogen could also be part of the Blue Eden project so we need to be involved and learn more about the opportunities.

Oracle Fusion

Thank you to everyone involved in the roll-out of Oracle Fusion. Council Leader, Rob Stewart, led the praise for staff involved in the four-year programme at an event at the Swansea.com stadium. The effort and long hours put in to achieve a successful introduction of this new IT system is to be commended. Oracle went live in April with a very smooth payroll. There are still some challenges with the system, particularly within payables and receivables but our partners Infosys hope to get these ironed out in June.

It was great to see a packed-out St Helen’s on Wednesday evening for Swansea RFC against the Barbarians to help celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Whites. It was an outstanding, community-focused occasion enjoyed by thousands, so my thanks to all council officers who helped support the event.

St Helen’s has played such an important role in Swansea’s sporting life for many years, and options to explore how it can continue to do so in future were discussed at a meeting the council had with Swansea University yesterday afternoon. We can’t say any more at this stage as discussions are ongoing with a number of parties, but we’ll keep people updated in due course. The university is also leading on an exciting City Deal project that includes elements of sports science innovation nearby at Sketty Lane, so the future of Swansea as a high-quality city of sport is looking bright.

At the meeting with the university, we also updated them on the Blue Eden development that includes a proposed tidal lagoon. Although the scheme is being fully funded by the private sector, we’re supporting it as a council because of the enormous benefits it would bring to Swansea – not just in terms of creating jobs for local people and opportunities for local businesses, but also because of its potential to place our city at the heart of global renewable energy innovation. That’s so important because of the investment it could bring here and its contribution to our net zero agenda. You can read more about a recent project update here

Among the other elements of the proposed scheme is a hydrogen manufacturing station for hydrogen-powered transport so, with that in mind, the council will be represented at a Hydrogen Gateway conference next week to learn more about new hydrogen technologies as we continue on our path to becoming a net zero city.

Also taking place next week is an event at the site of the Innovation Matrix at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s SA1 campus, with construction having started a few months ago. Forming part of the same City Deal project as Swansea Arena and the new office being constructed at the former Oceana nightclub site on The Kingsway, this project will provide spaces for university spin-off businesses in sectors like tech to set-up, grow and remain in Swansea.

Swansea Arena – now having been open for more than a year – has already welcomed well over a quarter of a million visitors to a range of events, but as well as giving local people access to world-class shows and concerts, it’s important that facilities like this, developed by the council, give community benefits too.

This is why it’s really encouraging to see the impact of our Beyond Bricks and Mortar initiative which was set up to ensure contractors on our major projects commit to providing work experience, training and apprenticeship opportunities to help local people get employment.

We were the first council in Wales to introduce such an initiative and figures now show more than 22,000 weeks of targeted recruitment and training over the last five years, supporting over 550 people. My thanks to all staff involved.

Building on this, one of the priorities I set out when I became Chief Executive was more training opportunities for existing council staff and new starters to enable career growth and broader skillsets. I anticipate making an update available on this soon.

Also among my priorities is improved engagement with staff, with the most recent ‘Let’s Talk About’ session having recently been held online. Open to all staff to attend and ask me questions, I’ll let staff know the dates and times of more sessions like this once details are confirmed.

Next week also marks the retirement of Stephen Evans – a driver in the client transport team – after 40 years of service.

Stephen, known as ‘Nipper’, will be hugely missed by his colleagues because of his work ethic and fun personality. He’s made an outstanding contribution to the council and the city, and deserves a long and happy retirement.