Swansea’s major regeneration programme is continuing at pace for the benefit of residents, businesses and visitors to the city.
The private sector is heavily investing in Swansea to complement schemes led by the council, so it was really encouraging to meet a number of developers and housing associations this week at the Development Advisory Group to find out more about their schemes which are either in progress or in the pipeline. These include the work being led by Kartay Investments to bring a number of empty units on Oxford Street back into use, as well as their plans to remodel the upper floors of the city centre’s McDonald’s building into flats.
As well as regenerating our city, providing support to the most deprived in our communities is at the heart of what we do as a council. At a meeting of Cabinet and the Corporate Management Team yesterday, Lee Cambule gave an overview of current work to tackle poverty in Swansea. A new tackling poverty strategy is being developed, so the meeting gave the opportunity to discuss what’s being planned ahead of the strategy going out to consultation. My thanks to Lee and the team for developing the strategy but also to all council services who are involved in its delivery on a day-to-day basis. It’s a great example of joined-up cross council working that we wish to continue to promote.
On Wednesday, myself and directors met with representatives from Audit Wales, Estyn and Care Inspectorate Wales for our annual risk assessment workshop. It was a positive session where we discussed key risks facing the council, examples of best practice and areas for development and improvement.
As part of the legal requirements placed on all councils, we are also arranging a Panel Performance Assessment (PPA) of the council for June as we strive to continuously improve for the benefit of residents and our staff. This will see an independent panel appointed by us to carry out a peer review on a range of areas. These will include how we can best work together as one council to encourage more collaboration across departments and also how we build some resilience within our workforce. Councillors also had the first overview or the programme last night so work will continue in the coming weeks and I’ll keep everyone up to date.
Earlier this week, I visited the Revenues and Benefits team in the Civic Centre to see first-hand the great work they do. From the collection of council tax and business rates to hardship payments and assessing eligibility for free school meals, their work is hugely varied and I was really grateful for them spending the time taking me across the department and meeting many of the staff involved in this key area of work. If you’d like me to visit your team to see the fantastic work you’re doing, please get in touch.
Our social media pages are also a great way to keep updated with the work your colleagues across the council are doing. More than 300,000 people saw two of our corporate communications team’s recent Facebook posts – one detailing our improvement work on a coastal path near Rotherslade, the other highlighting new public art as part of our Mumbles coastal protection scheme. A video showing the lighting bollards that have been installed on the promenade has also been watched over 50,000 times since Tuesday evening.
My thanks to staff involved in the organisation of the Holocaust Memorial Day event held in the Guildhall this week where pupils from schools across Swansea joined faith and civic leaders. It was a moving event to commemorate those who have lost their lives in acts of genocide across the world as people of all ages come together to help create a better future.
Finally, I’d like to wish Alan ‘Chalkie’ White my best wishes for a long and happy retirement. A maintenance labourer at our Heol y Gors depot, Alan has given 44 years service to the council. Alan and his wife, Tina, have recently bought a small property in Spain, so his time in the sunshine is richly deserved.
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