We’re launching our staff survey today to give you the chance to have your say on what’s important to you. Click here to join in.
It’s part of our efforts to improve staff engagement and to listen to your concerns and, importantly, to act upon them. We’ve already taken on board your views by changing the way we do the survey this year. In addition to the usual online and hand-out questionnaire surveys, managers will be holding meetings and gatherings to get your views as part of your team discussions. I meet staff every day and the feedback I get in our discussions is useful, but this is a chance to gather feedback from across the council on a range of issues and to identify changes and improvements we can make. It’d be great to have as many people as possible taking part so please take some time to give your views.
We now know the date of the General Election – July 4 – and we’ll be putting in place the usual plans. This will be a really busy time for staff managing election arrangements including postal votes, polling cards, polling stations and the election count. You’ll also need to be aware of the Pre-Election Period Protocol that starts Friday, May 31, 2024 (this date has been revised). It places restrictions on some of the things we’re allowed to say and do during the weeks leading up to the election, whilst continuing our daily services and functions. We’ll be sending out guidance shortly. We’ll also be recruiting election staff in the coming weeks with more details to follow. Following some boundary changes Swansea only has two parliamentary seats – Gower and Swansea West – with the former Swansea East seat aligning with Neath to create a new seat.
I’ve spent most of the week in Leeds promoting our city to investors and developers at a major business conference. UKREiiF was a chance to meet and speak to businesses to help deliver the next phase of our city centre regeneration. The response we had was excellent, the discussions were positive and there was lots of genuine interest in Swansea and the opportunities we can offer. It was also a chance to promote the proposed tidal lagoon and the huge green project we’re working on with DST. It was all really positive and we’ll be following-up these discussions in the coming weeks. It also fits with my priorities to help enhance Swansea’s reputation. We’re also about to start consultation on our place-making strategy for the city centre. It’s important we get people’ views on how they want the city centre to be shaped, including how we improve the retail, leisure and residential aspects. The consultation is due to go live on May 28 so please take the opportunity to give your views.
I’m meeting senior police officers today to discuss the city centre and local policing. I’ve been pleased with the increased police presence in the city centre and dealing with anti-social behaviour and our expectation is that this is a permanent presence. This also links to Swansea’s reputation so I’m keen to continue working with police and Safer Swansea partners on these matters.
Our city’s pioneering Swansea Arena was last night in the spotlight at this year’s RSAW (Royal Society of Architects in Wales) Welsh Architecture Awards 2024. Congratulations to our architects ACME and to the council team that turned our aspirations for this impressive landmark into a reality, helping attract many thousands of extra visitors to the city centre.
We’re bidding farewell this week to three long-serving members of staff. Kim Collis, whom many of you will know as our county archivist, leaves us on May 31 after 32 years with the council. More recently he became the council’s first data protection officer, stepping in to support us through the successful implementation of the GDPR and, subsequently, the Data Protection Act. Also retiring after 32 years with us is Patrick Holcroft, our housing team’s energy efficiency co-ordinator and Paul Rees, manager of our homes preparation unit who has served the council for 31 years. I’d like to thank all three for their contributions and wish all of them well in retirement.
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