Happy New Year to you all. I hope you had an enjoyable festive period. This morning (Friday), Cabinet agreed a report on our budget proposals for the next financial year. The number of posts affected by the proposals is small this year and, as always, we will do all we can to minimise compulsory redundancies. Among the next steps will be discussions about the proposals with trade unions and other stakeholders. As staff, you’ll also be able to have your say as well when the consultation goes live. And if you live in Swansea, you’ll be able to participate in the consultation as a member of the public. Cabinet will then be updated on consultation feedback before it makes its final recommendations for a Council decision in March. I’ll keep you posted.
On Wednesday Senior Management Group (SMG) met at Guildhall for a busy day of discussions. With the next financial year coming into sight, we looked at service planning for the year ahead – a process that will affect everyone in the coming weeks and months. I also reminded managers of the importance of completing the annual appraisal reviews and provided an update on the arrangements for next year. I’ll issue some guidance shortly but if you’ve not had an appraisal, please speak to your manager On the staff survey, senior managers will now have their action plans for your area, so please ask them to update you.
One piece of feedback from the staff survey was about the importance of us getting out of our departmental silos and working together across the council on priorities so we can have the most impact possible on services and supporting our communities. One example is Tackling Poverty – one of our six corporate priorities. It’s everyone’s business and SMG received an update on our strategy from project lead Lee Cambule. We’re going out to consultation on the strategy in the coming weeks and you’ll have a chance to get involved, so watch this space. My thanks to Lee and the team for their work on this so far.
Similarly, community safety is a cross-council issue where collaboration can have more impact compared to teams working in isolation of one another. This week I was pleased to be part of the latest meeting of the new council-wide Community Safety Forum. It aims to share ideas, avoid duplication of effort and ensure we have a joined-up approach in implementing actions that benefit our communities in this vital area of our work. I’ll keep you updated on how this goes.
This year’s Swansea Grand Theatre pantomime – Jack and the Beanstalk – was yet another amazing success. The show broke its own box office record for the third year in a row with more than 35,000 people taking advantage of the traditional festive treat. The panto also raised more than £20,000 for the Lord Mayor’s Charities and other local good causes. As one season ends, planning for the next panto season begins and TV personality Joe Pasquale has already been lined up to star alongside our own Kev Johns in Aladdin in December. Congratulations to all involved.
Also well done to the Gower National Landscape team for securing coveted DarkSkies International status for the area. It’s a great achievement that has only been made possible through the work of officers, teams from a range of different services, Members and partner organisations. Find out more about what it means here, but it will undoubtedly be an important boost to our tourism industry, enhancing Gower’s reputation as a brilliant visitor destination.
Finally, it’s farewell in the next couple of weeks to Richard Stafford, our Swansea Bus Station manager, after 44 years working for the council in a variety of roles. Remarkably, Richard has not had to take a sick day in all that time. Well done Richard, thank you for your service and good luck in your next chapter.
For those of you who knows / worked with Richard, we will be having farewell drinks in the Wig and Pen on Friday 31st January (from 5pm onwards).