Archives for February 2026

As we head towards March and the arrival of spring, I wanted to take a few moments to reflect on the week just gone – and to look ahead to some important developments across the Council.

Next week, we’ll be launching a new internal campaign celebrating how staff are helping to deliver our shared Swansea 2028 vision every day.

Swansea 2028 sets out the city we want to create together: thriving communities, great public services, a stronger economy and a greener, fairer Swansea for everyone.

It’s an ambitious vision – but it’s not abstract. It’s rooted firmly in the work you’re already doing in teams, services and neighbourhoods across the city.

Much of what we do every single day directly supports that long-term direction, so this campaign is about telling that story more clearly and consistently.

Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be sharing short, simple stories from colleagues across the council who are making a real difference – from frontline teams modernising services, to staff supporting families earlier and those improving neighbourhoods, strengthening communities and helping residents live well and independently.

This is your story. I hope you’ll continue to take pride in seeing the collective impact of your work recognised and shared.

Earlier this week, our Director of Corporate Services, Ness Young, was invited to attend the Microsoft AI Tour at Excel London where Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella delivered the keynote address to 6,000 delegates – and I’m proud to say that the Council was highlighted for its work.

Ness got to meet Satya, with the Council being one of only five customers across the UK that had the opportunity to showcase its work to him directly.

It was great to see the Welsh flag behind him when he referenced our excellent work during his address, which showed how Welsh local government is at the forefront of digital innovation.

We have invested in 1,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences, and 2,500 staff are now regularly using Copilot Chat to support their work across multiple departments. Colleagues are using AI to prepare for meetings, summarise lengthy documents and draft clearer, more concise reports.

In large organisations, small time savings quickly add up to significant gains. In just four weeks, we estimate that using AI tools has saved around 5,400 staff hours.

But let me be clear: this is not about replacing jobs. It’s about freeing up time for analysis, creativity and better decision-making. It’s about enabling you to focus on the work that adds most value for residents.

My thanks go to colleagues in Digital Services for the leadership, support and training they’ve provided to help make this happen.

Like many of you, I was disappointed to hear of the decision by Marks & Spencer earlier this week to leave their Oxford Street store. Our immediate thoughts are with the M&S staff affected by this decision.

M&S has been clear that the location is no longer suitable for its evolving business model. The company has already closed around 90 historic stores nationally as part of a wider strategy focused on investing in new-format locations.

This decision is not a reflection on Swansea as a retail destination. M&S has recognised the significant regeneration underway in our city and has stated that it remains committed to exploring options for an alternative store location here. We have worked closely with M&S to identify potential sites and will continue to do so.

At the same time, we remain absolutely determined to ensure our city centre continues to grow and attract major brands and investment.

Our commitment to regeneration is unchanged. A key example of this is the ongoing work to pave the way for the transformation of the Civic Centre site, and Cabinet has now given the green light for further work to inform the detail of a planning application.

Working with our regeneration partners, Urban Splash, proposals include cafes, bars and shops, 15 commercial units at ground and lower ground level, approximately 140 apartments on upper floors, flexible workspaces, leisure and events spaces, an aquarium and a saltwater lido. This is an exciting opportunity to reimagine a prominent waterfront site and create a vibrant destination that supports both economic growth and community life.

This weekend sees the return of Croeso – our St David’s Day celebration – to the city centre. All events are free and there’s something for everyone: a Q&A with Welsh participants from The Traitors TV programme, food and drink, cookery demonstrations, live music, street entertainers, workshops, arts and crafts, a children’s trail and a St David’s Day parade. My thanks to colleagues in Cultural Services for organising what promises to be another fantastic celebration of Welsh culture and creativity.

To further mark St David’s Day in style, our leisure partners Freedom Leisure are holding an open weekend across its Swansea facilities. Free activities include gym sessions, fitness classes, learn-to-swim assessments, pool sessions – including the LC waterpark – bounce and play, climbing wall activities, racket sports and more. It’s a great opportunity for residents – and for staff and their families – to get active and try something new.

Given the range of brilliant cultural activity and events that are carried out across the year, it was great at our Cabinet CMT away day on Wednesday to hear an update on the emerging Cultural Strategy from our Head of Service, Tracey McNulty, and Nerys Evans – our Strategic Manager for Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. This is a five-year plan running until 2031, which sets out how the Council will help deliver effective cultural, economic and well-being outcomes through continued partnership working. The strategy will progress through the usual process to Cabinet and I’ll share more on the specific elements in due course.

A number of exciting apprenticeship opportunities are again now open for applications within our Building Services department, which maintains homes and public buildings across Swansea. This scheme reflects our commitment to supporting local people into quality jobs.

Many previous apprentices have gone on to secure permanent roles with us, building long-term careers serving their communities. It was therefore timely that Corporate Management Team this week considered a draft strategy allowing us to grow our own staff across the Council – and this will include apprentices, trainees, graduates, the social services academy and other initiatives.

The strategy tries to bring them all into one place, allowing managers to select what works best for them and their teams. This is a key part of our Workforce Strategy and helps ensure we can recruit and retain key skills for the future. I look forward to sharing more news on that soon.

Finally, I was deeply saddened to hear of the sudden passing of our colleague Mike Jones, who served the Council in the Education Directorate since 1997.

Mike’s expertise in data management, his kindness and calm professionalism had a profound impact on our schools and the wider education community in Wales. He worked closely with schools and teams across the Council, offering insight, support and unwavering commitment.

My thoughts are with Mike’s family, friends and colleagues at this very difficult time.

Yesterday’s Cabinet meeting was one of the busiest there’s been for a long time. It covered a range of things that are going to affect us all in the coming months and years such as next year’s budget, updated HR policies, the future of the Civic Centre and our Placemaking Strategy.

The Placemaking Strategy approved by Cabinet yesterday sets out our vision to influence the look and feel of the city centre in the coming years. The city centre is the engine room of our local economy and central to our ambition for the city as a whole as a place to live, work, visit and be proud of. The previous city centre framework shaped the work over the last 10 years and the new strategy’s impact will be felt for decades to come, so it’s important everyone has their say when consultation starts and we get it right. My thanks to Gail Evans in our regeneration team who has led on this vital piece of work.

A key part of that overall vison for the City is the future of the Civic Centre and you have seen the recent engagement on the draft proposals for that exciting project which Cabinet also considered yesterday. I’ll keep you posted on its continuing implications for those still working at the Civic Centre and our wider staff community in the weeks ahead.

It will have been hard to miss media this week reporting our decision to take legal action about the future of the Ospreys and safeguarding professional rugby in our region. We’ve acted because we’ve had no choice. Professional regional rugby in our area is an essential part of our economy and regeneration vision for Swansea. Should the WRU and Y11 go ahead with their plan, it will damage that vision, undermine our local economy and our communities’ sporting and cultural aspirations too. Feedback so far shows strong public support for what we are doing. I’ll keep you posted.

CMT this week reviewed our health and safety strategy and action plans and looked at what’s coming in the next couple of years. They’re important documents designed to keep staff safe in their roles, promote a culture of safety and support our teams in areas like occupational health. The next step is to continue to discuss the reports with the unions at JCC before going to Cabinet for final approval. Yesterday, Cabinet also approved two updated HR policies on flexible retirement and recruitment and selection, which you can find here and here. These policies aim to manage our workforce in a way that makes the most of your skills and abilities, improve succession planning and recruit and retain the staff we need to deliver modern services to our residents.

Ensuring our HR policies continue to be fit for purpose are an essential part of that story. So too is our commitment to find more innovative ways to bring people into our Council and to recruit and train apprentices to be the next generation of our workforce. That’s why I’m pleased to be promoting a new round of webinars put together by our HR team in collaboration with Gower College Swansea. Over the last few years, we’ve recruited more than 180 apprentices across a whole range of different fields. They repeatedly demonstrate what a great investment they are – often in hard-to-fill roles. My thanks to them and to the HR team for setting up the webinars and would urge all managers to take the opportunity to find out a little more.

A similar success story is the progress we’ve made using our AI tool Microsoft Copilot across many of our services. Ness Young, our director for corporate services, is heading to a UK Microsoft conference next week to showcase our reputation as a leading local authority in Wales for adopting AI. It’s not just that the tool helps save time, it’s also that the time saved has allowed teams – social services is a good example – to focus even more effectively on their main task supporting residents in our communities.    

And finally, as mentioned earlier, Cabinet agreed a series of 2026/27 budget reports yesterday, including our main revenue and capital spending budgets and similar reports for the Housing Revenue Account. The reports now go to Full Council on March 5 for debate and a final decision. As always, I’m grateful to you for your participation in the consultation and to Ben Smith, Sarah Willis and Simon Arthurs in finance for supporting us through the process.

At the start of Apprentice Week on Monday I was really proud to see colleagues across the council recognised at the Gower College Swansea Apprenticeship Awards. Congratulations to Leon Lezzi from our Building Services team in securing the Apprentice of the Year in the Built Environment category and Zoe Payne in Waste and Recycling, who won Facilities and Resource Management Apprentice of the Year. Also congratulations to Rachel Healion for collecting the employer apprenticeships champion award for her long-standing work with Gower College in supporting our apprentices year after year. You can read more about their awards here.

Their achievements reflect their hard work, but it’s also a reminder of how important it is that we continue investing in people and creating opportunities for the next generation of staff to build their careers with us. That’s why we’re now developing a new apprenticeship strategy for the council which will also extend to traineeships, graduate schemes and more bespoke opportunities such as our social services academy. This isn’t a “one size fits all” approach, but will set out how we can work with every service area to grow the skills it needs for the future as part of our workforce development strategy. The draft will be going to CMT in the coming weeks, ahead of further discussions with our trade unions and Cabinet members.

Apprenticeships don’t just benefit individuals, they strengthen our organisation, bring fresh ideas into our services and help us plan ahead with confidence. I want to thank everyone who has played a part in this work so far, from our managers and mentors to the apprentices themselves. Their commitment shows the real value of learning and development across the council, and I’m looking forward to seeing how our new strategy helps us build on that even further.

Sticking with the jobs and development theme, earlier this week, we met with representatives of the Crown Estate. We get together quarterly to discuss future jobs and innovation opportunities tied to plans for floating offshore wind farms in the Celtic Sea and other wider initiatives. Such developments are still a number of years away, but they could have a transformational impact, creating new jobs and skills that our communities can take advantage of if we prepare well. As we know developing a skills pipeline can take a number of years so it’s important we get ahead of the game and place Swansea in as strong a position as possible.  

A little more in the here-and-now was this week’s meeting of the Development Advisory Group (DAG). It’s a regular catch-up of local developers, businesses and housing providers designed to make sure we’re all pulling in the same direction on the future of our city centre and wider regeneration and housing supply. It’s great to hear about the continued progress being made across the city and wider county

Following consultation with staff, trade unions, schools, residents and businesses, our budget papers have been published ahead of next week’s Cabinet meeting. It’s not just the main revenue budget, there’s also the corporate capital budget and two Housing Revenue Account budget reports up for discussion. After considering the reports, Cabinet will agree what recommendations to make to Full Council next month when final decisions will be made. Please do have a look because in one way or another, they’ll be affecting the work you do in the coming financial year.

This week Dawn Bowden, Minister for Children and Social care, came to Swansea to see the excellent work being done by our Flying Start team. Their hard work supported by Welsh Government funding means every family in Swansea with a two?year?old can now access Flying Start childcare. Reaching this milestone is a fantastic achievement and a testament to colleagues across the council who’ve worked with dedication to make it happen. This investment in our youngest children will make a real difference to families across the city. My thanks to all involved.

Finally, if you’ve been by the Castle Square Gardens building site recently, you’ll have noticed some colourful new artworks have appeared on hoardings near Y Storfa. They’re the result of a collaboration between a local business and artist and designed for passers-by to enjoy as work continues to transform the area into a landmark city centre attraction. My thanks to all involved.

I’m sure most of you will have seen the media reports this week about our involvement in the effort to retain the Ospreys professional men’s regional rugby club in Swansea. Sports fans and former rugby players have started a campaign to save the club as a professional outfit. We’ve taken what is a rare step in writing to the WRU and the Ospreys’ owners Y11 setting out our concerns about their plans. It matters to us because there are clear economic, reputational, health and wellbeing benefits in having the Ospreys based in the city. Taking the club away is a risk to our vision for the local economy, and the plans for the regeneration of St Helen’s. It also risks discouraging enthusiasm for playing and following sport in our communities and also growing the women’s game. As we know grassroots sport works wonders in bringing communities together and promotes health and wellbeing, as our Sports Awards nominations this year demonstrate. So, having elite athletes like the Ospreys living and playing in Swansea is crucial  to the City’s ongoing development and regeneration.  I’ll keep you posted.

Another big announcement this week that aims to support our vision for a thriving local economy and city centre is our successful bid for £20m of UK Government funding under its new Pride in Place initiative. More details will follow, but the grant, spread over the next 10 years, is focussed on regenerating the High Street, Dyfatty and surrounding communities, and links closely to our own investment plans for housing and other improvements there. My thanks to Paul Relf and the team for pulling together the bid.

Leadership team this week discussed progress on the actions CMT and heads of service are committed to taking in the light of your staff survey feedback. The team also looked at the development of this year’s services plans. The plans have a direct impact on the work you do every day. They also link with our ongoing review of services to ensure they provide the best outcomes for residents, deliver value for money and conform to service standards and target operating models. My thanks in particular to Suzy Richards and the service representatives involved for developing the Service Planning App for managers that will enable the process to be done more easily and effectively in future.

On Monday I attended a very productive Public Services Board workshop alongside our Deputy Leader Cllr Andrea Williams and partners from health, police, SCVS and the fire service. We looked at a range of topics, including how we continue to work together in the coming years on common objectives  for the benefit of our residents. My thanks to Ness Young and Leanne Aherne for their work to help the PSB deliver on its remit to support key areas of joint action which can directly benefit residents more efficiently and effectively than when partners are acting alone.

Hundreds of people have so far had their say on the future of the Civic Centre, unveiled a couple of weeks ago. If you want to get involved, please click here. The project comes at a time when we’re taking further steps to bring more back-office staff into Guildhall from the Civic and our new public-facing home at Y Storfa is attracting praise from the public. Please let your contacts know that apart from bereavement services and the Registrar’s Office, there is no public access to the Civic and all other face-to-face services are located at Y Storfa.

Congratulations to Sarah Lackenby, our head of Digital and Customer Services, who has been appointed chair of the WLGA’s Digital Advisory Group. The group provides practical support and expertise to councils across Wales and I’m sure Sarah’s new role will benefit us in the months ahead.

Don’t forget that if you want to have your say in this year’s 2026/27 budget consultation, deadline day is today. Reports taking into account your feedback go to Cabinet later this month and to Full Council next month for a final decision.

Finally, as most of you know, blood donation is an issue that personally means a great deal to me. If you can give this month, please do. You can find your nearest donor sessions at this link. The Welsh Blood Service’s stocks continue to face pressure, so all support is really appreciated.