Some of you may be aware that one of the gardeners in our parks team, Ian Sparrowhawk, tragically passed away last week following an incident at work. Ian was taken to hospital by air ambulance but did not regain consciousness. Ian was well-known and a much-loved member of the parks family which is grieving the loss of one of their own. He joined the Council in December 1983, beginning with the team in Ravenhill and worked within the Parks Service throughout his career, most recently as part of the team based in Mynydd Newydd. Ian leaves a wife, two sons and grandchildren. My condolences and thoughts are with Ian’s family, friends and colleagues among the parks team at this very sad and difficult time.
Yesterday I joined councillors and officers on visits to see progress on two significant heritage projects the council has been involved with – Palace Theatre and Hafod Copperworks. It was great to see momentum at the Palace which will become a workspace for creative businesses. We were at Hafod for the official opening of the new Penderyn Distillery, the culmination of a painstaking effort to create jobs and a new industrial heritage tourist attraction at the former copperworks site. I recommend you pay a visit. Both projects have had significant funding and input from the council and they’re great examples of how we protect local heritage, imaginatively repurposing landmarks for the modern age. My thanks to Tracy Nichols, Paul Relf, Elliott Williams and Richard Horlock and the wider team for their contribution to these important success stories.
I was very pleased that Swansea Council hosted the APSE Wales Annual General Meeting and Strategic Forum on Wednesday. I mention APSE in my blog from time to time because its work promoting best practice in local government has an influence on our own improvement agenda, affecting the services we provide every day. Congratulations to Cllr Lewis who was re-elected Chair of APSE Wales and to Chris Cutforth, re-elected as Wales Secretary of APSE.
On Tuesday I attended the formal launch of the European U-18 Hockey Tournament at Swansea University’s Sports Park, along with Mark Wade, Deputy Leader Andrea Lewis, Jamie Rewbridge and Dave Jones from our sports development team. It was great to see such an event taking place in Swansea and to meet some of our rising under-18 players representing Wales. It was also good to hear from Hockey Wales CEO Paul Whapham – who used to work for us – about the great partnership that they have with the council and our sports development team. My thanks to all involved in supporting this event but also the wider support for developing sport and participation in Swansea.
The sport continues this weekend with the World Triathlon Para Series making a welcome return today and tomorrow, with IRONMAN 70.3 taking place on Sunday. They’ve been preceded by a week-long Para Sport Festival featuring many different sports at a range of locations around the city. Sport contributes so much to health and wellbeing, so thanks are due to Special Events and the Sport and Health teams for making it all happen.
My congratulations to two very long-serving members of staff who have clocked up almost a century of service between them, Carole Billingham and Martin Pritchard. Carole, among other work, has been delivering Rhyme Times at libraries to engrossed youngsters since 1975 and is still going strong after 48 years. Martin started as an apprentice in 1978 and now works in Building Services’ architectural design group and will be retiring at the end of this month. My best wishes and thanks to them both for the future.
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