I was proud to be at the official opening of our landmark 71/72 Kingsway building yesterday morning. It was great to see First Minister Eluned Morgan and Welsh Office Minister Dame Nia Griffith as well as other AMs and business leaders so impressed with what they saw. Of course, this isn’t just about building grade A office accommodation which is flexible, attractive, and fit for the next generation of digital-led innovators who will work there. As many speakers and the tenants themselves said, if we don’t create this kind of development, businesses we want to come here will stay away and existing companies could go elsewhere in search of better working or larger grow-on spaces. So, 71/72 sends a powerful message to businesses and investment influencers everywhere that Swansea is a 21st century place to work, live and enjoy – so come and join us.
We announced yesterday that Future First will be joining TUI and IWG as tenants at 71/72. We’re also finalising arrangements for a fourth tenant – a household name we’re hoping to announce soon. All this has been made possible by the council and our staff. My particular thanks go to the regeneration team led by Lee Richards, Catrin Kim, Adrian Denning and Elizabeth Morris and of course the late Huw Mowbray and Gareth Hughes for making sure the 71/72 development was delivered so successfully.
Speaking of top performance, our annual review of performance was reported to Full Council last night. Overall, the last 12 months has been very positive but, as always, there are areas for improvement, including staff absence where we are behind on our targets. To help address this we’ve recently launched a new management of absence policy, which I’d recommend everyone takes some time to read. If you’re a manager, there’s mandatory training to be done on this as well. So please act now.
Also, last night, Council received an update on the pension fund changes being brought in nationally – and how Swansea is having to respond to UK government legislation changes. It was a very encouraging story and demonstrated the strong progress being made by Swansea to ensure that current and future pensioners are able to benefit from its continued success as a safe, secure and successful Local Government Pension Scheme in the years to come. I want to pass on my thanks to Jeff Dong for his presentation and his work on this, not just for Swansea but on the wider pool arrangements across Wales.
In Leadership group this week we tried something a bit different, so undertook a facilitated session about how we can improve the way our leadership team works. We also considered how we can improve our approaches to planning as well as the evidence base for the decisions we make. While a lot of the discussion was around strategic thinking, the innovations we’re looking at will have an impact on the whole organisation. It’s a new methodology which takes some time to work through, but we collectively agreed to progress and I will keep you posted on how this goes.
Interviews will be starting shortly following our recruitment campaign for new drivers and carriers that will support the transformation of our waste and recycling services. We’ve had more than 400 applications, which demonstrates there’s a strong interest among our residents in working for the council – especially in jobs as important as these. My thanks to Rachel Jowitt, Fran Williams and the recruitment team for their work in this area.
Well done to the city centre team and all our other staff who ensure that night-time visitors have a great time in a safe place. It means that for the 11th year in a row we’ve been awarded Purple Flag status. You can read more about this important success story here.
Congratulations to Carole Billingham from our libraries service who will early next week clock up a remarkable 50th year working with us. Carole is retiring later this month after a lifetime’s achievement, and I want to add my thanks to all those of her friends and colleagues.
Also, congratulations to Rhys Harries from our Trading Standards team who’s been recognised with a special certificate of achievement by the Anti Counterfeiting Group, an international organisation of businesses dedicated to eradicating pirated goods around the world. In particular Rhys and his team were recognised for their leadership in May’s Operation Grinch, in which up to £10million of counterfeit toys were seized from a number of warehouses in London.
And, finally, good luck to special events, highways and everyone else involved in running the Wales Airshow this weekend. Next weekend, they’ll be back again for Ironman 70.3 – you can find out more about both events here and here.
Well Done Rhys much deserved!