More praise for your achievements

It’s always a pleasure to celebrate staff and council achievements in the blog, especially when it’s an endorsement of what we do by influential people and organisations. The final report of the Panel Performance Assessment certainly fits that bill. Last night’s Full Council meeting added its support to the panel’s recognition of the hard work you do every day delivering vital services to our residents. You can read more about the PPA final report here. But this in-depth study by experts in their field concluded that we are a well-run council of committed, engaged people with excellent officer-member relations and good prospects for continued improvement in the years ahead. It’s not an endorsement casually applied or one that everyone gets. I am proud of everything you all achieve day in day out  and I hope you are too. There are a few actions that we will be following up in the coming months so you will see more updates as these items progress.

The PPA adds to our reputation among our peers and today our city’s growing status as a great place to invest is also being celebrated at the landmark 71/72 Kingsway venue developed by our regeneration team. Top people from Amazon UK are visiting to officially open the headquarters of their latest tech start-up company, Veeqo. That a company as influential among its peers as Amazon can see our potential and want to invest in a council-led development is a huge vote of confidence in us and in our city’s reputation.

The Leader and I also attended the Wales Investment Summit in Newport on Monday, which was another opportunity to share our story with a range of other potential investors and influencers. All this is happening in the same week as Y Storfa opened to the public to great acclaim. The city centre is a corporate priority, and people can see we are leading the way in its revitalisation. My thanks to all our teams involved for their work delivering change for good.

Our Leadership Group of directors and heads of service met on Wednesday. We covered a range of topics, including news of Oracle updates such as the new manager and employee self-service systems. We also had a briefing about improvements to the appraisal management system which will make the process more user-friendly by next year’s round of reviews.

The leadership team had a presentation  about our education service’s draft Designing Destinations Strategy – our ambitious plan to enable every young person to design and develop the skills and experiences they need for the future they want for themselves. A key part of it is the Swansea Pledge, where businesses and organisations step up to offer work experience, mentorship and career events that inspire young people to make the most of their talents. Those who know me will be aware that it is an area I feel passionate about and fully support so it’s great to see such excellent progress being make and my thanks to Rhodri, David Bawden and Rachel Rimmer for their work in this area.

Well done to everyone involved in the Sandfields Active Travel and Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) project which has been named an Ystadau Cymru Award 2025 winner. Why not pop over from Guildhall or the Civic Centre and take a look yourself. It’s pretty impressive.

Congratulations to Andrew Dulley, our head of West Glamorgan Archive Service, who’s just notched up 30 years’ service with the council. His latest contribution has been to help organise the service’s transfer from Civic Centre to Y Storfa – no small feat. By all accounts the first week in its new home has been really busy, which is great to hear.

A big thank-you too to Paul Leyshon (pictured left) who is retiring this month after 43 years as a gardener, maintaining parks and open spaces in the Morriston area. I wish Paul and his family all the best in their next chapter.

Finally, well done to our teams who were out in the terrible weather earlier this week when we had a rare Met Office amber warning for rain. Much preparation had gone on beforehand to reduce its impact on our roads, helping to keep disruption to a minimum.