One of our flagship projects has just received national recognition and is helping to put Swansea on the map. Our Hafod Copperworks scheme has won through the UK final of the of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors awards in October, having scooped the regional heritage award. The historic industrial site has been restored and now houses the Penderyn distillery and visitor centre and there’s lots more to come. As part of the Lower Swansea Valley improvement project the former laboratory, rolling mill and engine houses will be renovated to breathe new life into the former industrial wasteland. I’ve mentioned many times previously how important our reputation is, and this fantastic project is a massive positive for the council and city. Congratulations and thank you to everyone involved.
I visited another major scheme this week to see progress on the Mumbles sea wall project. It’s only when you walk the site that you realise just how big and complex the work is. It’s a great engineering feat, working right on the seafront. It took me back to my younger days when I worked as a quantity surveyor on engineering projects. The scheme isn’t without its challenges but the work will protect homes and businesses from the effects of climate change and the improvements to the prom will make the area even more appealing for residents and visitors. Thank you to Dave Hughes, Alun Thomas and Richard Organ for planning and overseeing this project.
As part of trying to get out into the wider Council and meet staff across the council and this week I joined the education management team meeting. We discussed budget pressures and risks facing the service and our schools, but it was also a chance to get a better view of the great work our central team is doing with schools and front-line services to support our learners. If you want me to come along to visit your team or join a meeting just let me know.
In the meantime, please don’t forget to complete the staff survey or take part in team discussions so that your views get fed back. I want to hear from you to understand if our communication and engagement with staff is working and also make any improvements needed to reach all our employees where they work so please take the time to participate. Linked to engagement, on Thursday we also had our monthly leadership team meeting of all directors and heads of service which looked at how we can work better together and tackle the key issues we face. It was a really positive meeting and helped us understand further the workload pressures and how we, as officers, can collectively support the delivery of our priorities and yours. We will continue to progress and it’s a good example of where we’re improving engagement at a senior level in the organisation. We also plan to restart the senior manager group meetings and I will be looking at a date to be arranged after the summer, so more on that later.
Best wishes to Simon John who is retiring after 34 years’ service. Simon is a council tax team leader and some of you will know him from his time organising the council’s beach football and rugby teams for many years.
Finally, and on a personal note, you may recall I shared some news with you last year that I was undergoing some treatment for blood cancer. I am very happy to be able to advise that after completing 18 months of treatment this week I am now in remission. As mentioned previously, the Welsh Blood Donor service kept me alive in the early months of treatment and I wanted to highlight that next week, June 10 is the start of National Blood Donor Week. I know many of you have signed up to be blood donors but if you haven’t and can do so, please take a look and book yourself in https://wbs.wales/SwanCoun
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