‘Castle Square’

Balancing the books

June 22, 2018 by Martin Leave a Comment

This week CMT and Cabinet members have been having early discussions on our budget strategy. There are some major challenges in delivering this year’s savings but it’s essential we’re successful in doing so. Detailed monitoring arrangements have been put in place and I’ve asked managers to ensure the spending restrictions are strictly followed. CMT will continue to monitor vacancy management and procurement whilst we develop additional in-year savings proposals to ensure we come in on budget at the end of the financial year.

As part of the overall financial picture, management costs must be reduced in order to protect front line services so I was delighted that Council approved my report on the review of our senior management structure last night. All staff affected are being consulted over the coming weeks. The proposals set out how we’ll save around £280,000 in senior management costs whilst ensuring there’s enough capacity to deliver the Council’s ambitious programmes and for us to meet the challenges of regional working. I know this will present challenges for staff in delivering our services but the financial environment for all councils is getting increasingly tough. We now need to develop detailed proposals for discussion with councillors in the autumn and I hope all staff will feed ideas in so that we can minimise job losses.

Farewell

This month sees a number of our long-serving members of staff taking ER/VR. The 32 leavers have clocked up more than 740 years’ service between them which is a remarkable achievement. Among them are Kath Thomas in our school governor unit who’s done 31 years, Nigel Jones, the driving force behind many of our major events, who’s reached 32 years, and Deb Yeates who will be known around the council for her work in HR who’ll be leaving after 37 years. There are too many to mention in this blog, but here’s a link to the full list. It’s always sad to see colleagues leave, but I wish them all well and thank them for their outstanding service and commitment to public service in Swansea. The place is going to seem strange without these familiar faces!

Schools

I mentioned last week that schools would be taking part in an enterprise event in Castle Square and I’m delighted to say it was a huge success. Their products included pocket games, bird seed holders, soaps, scrabble key rings, flower pots and candles in vintage tea cups. Well done to everyone involved. And congratulations to Morriston Primary School which is celebrating its 150^th anniversary. Staff, pupils, parents and local businesses have taken part in the celebrations.

Events

Swansea communities which have their roots in the Windrush Generation will be sharing and celebrating their heritage on Saturday. It’s the 70th anniversary of the arrival in Britain of the ‘MV Empire Windrush’, a former cruise ship carrying Caribbean migrants answering a UK government call for a new generation of workers to help re-build Britain after the ravages of war. The event is being held at the Guildhall and will feature a Gospel choir, local artists and a display from Swansea Museum. It’s been organised by Race Council Cymru in collaboration with our Cultural Services team and Black History Wales.

Refugee Week celebrates its 20th birthday this week. It’s a nationwide programme of arts, cultural and educational activities that celebrate the contribution of refugees and people seeking sanctuary to the UK and encourages a better understanding between communities. In Swansea our Fusion team have delivered a range of music and lyric writing workshops at Gower College for adults, organised a film evening at Cinema and Co and showcased a primary-aged Ballet showcase.

This weekend I’ll be at the Liberty Stadium to watch the Killers. It’s part of an exciting series of events taking place in Swansea this summer so thanks for all the staff who are working to support the programme.

Manchester – a City United

May 26, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

The horrific events at the Manchester Arena shocked us all. Whilst it’s hard to identify what the authorities could have done to prevent the attack, it’s important that we redouble our efforts to mitigate against such dangers. We’ll continue to work with the police and other organisations on security for major events in the city. We’d urge everyone to continue to be vigilant and report anything suspicious.

In paying our respects to those caught up in the bombing, flags have been flown at half-mast and a vigil took place on Tuesday evening in Castle Square. I’m grateful for the staff who helped to arrange this at short notice.

On Wednesday parts of the city centre were evacuated due to a suspicious package, which seems to have been a “hoax”. I’m really angry about this because one of the purposes of terrorism is to inject chaos, disruption and paranoia into communities. Hoaxes compound this and assist those who commit acts of terror.

However, I’m grateful to all our staff and others who helped in the quick and safe evacuation. They were praised by the police for their efforts.

Unsurprisingly, CMT this week discussed emergency and civil contingency planning. We’ll be reviewing procedures and carrying out a practice exercise to test our readiness for a major emergency. I hope we never face the situation that confronted the authorities in Manchester, but if we do I want to make doubly sure that we, along with our community, are all prepared for the critical roles that would be required of us.

Council AGM

The annual General Meeting of Council took place last night. Councillor Rob Stewart was re-elected as Leader and Councillor Clive Lloyd was elected Deputy Leader

The Cabinet Members and their portfolios are:

Economy & Strategy – Leader – Rob Stewart

Service Transformation & Business Operations – Deputy Leader – Clive Lloyd

Education & Children – Jen Raynor

Health & Well Being – Mark Child

Housing & Energy – Andrea Lewis

Stronger Communities – Will Evans

Culture Tourism & Sport – Robert Francis-Davies

Commercial Opportunities & Innovation – David Hopkins

Future Generations – June Burtonshaw/ Mary Sherwood (job share)

Environment Services – Mark Thomas

Scrutiny programme committee – Mary Jones

Council also appointed chairs for the Policy Development and Delivery Committees, which replace the Cabinet Advisory Committees. The PD&D Committee chairs will be councillors Robert Smith, Mandy Evans, Erika Kirchner, Ryland Doyle and Paulette Smith. Councillor Penny Matthews will continue to chair the Licensing Committee and Councillor Paul Lloyd will carry on as Chair of Planning.

Congratulations to all.

A new Lord Mayor

The inauguration of the new Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress takes place this afternoon. Councillor Phil Downing is taking over from the current Lord Mayor, Councillor David Hopkins. David and his consort, Beverley, have done a magnificent job for the city over the last year. It’s been an incredibly busy year for them and I know they’ve enjoyed it. Thanks both for a job well done.

Election

Preparations for the General Election are continuing with just over 34,500 postal votes going out this week – the highest number we’ve ever had.

The elections team has added over 7,500 people to the register since the May election, and processed 1,600 postal vote applications on Monday and Tuesday. A great effort, well done!

Bishop Gore

Last week I visited Bishop Gore School to meet the head teacher, Ryan Davies, and his team. The school has over 1,200 pupils. It is a “green” school with 1 for standards and A for leadership. We discussed how we can ensure pupils are properly equipped for the world of work and further education. I was interested to hear how it’s difficult to find proper work placements for students and this is an area I think we can make progress on. One possibility is a database linking placement opportunities with students’ skills and ambitions. I’ll be discussing this with colleagues.

The school has implemented an innovative approach to educating children who arrive at the school from primary education with low levels of literacy and numeracy and this is making a real difference. They’ve also recently developed their horticultural skills by regenerating the school’s walled garden. This is a wonderful facility for learning and fun and I hope the team at the botanical gardens who’ve already assisted can help further. Ryan is leaving to move to Brynteg in Bridgend at the end of this term but I must pay tribute to his leadership and the achievements of his team.

Farewells

We have a number of long serving colleagues leaving us today. Mike Hawes, Director of Resources is retiring after 35 years. Mike has made a huge contribution and I’m grateful for his wise counsel and unwavering support, particularly since I took up post last year.

Dave Evans, Housing Business Manager, also retires today after 28 years. Dave and I worked together for many years on a variety of projects and he can be rightfully proud of his contribution in improving the quality of life for council tenants.

Also this month, Steve Colwill and Phil Lewis will be leaving Corporate Building and Property Services after 43 years and 26 years, respectively.

Thanks to all four who have clocked up 126 years of service between them!

Congratulations and thanks

Swansea Marina and four of our beaches – Caswell, Langland, Port Eynon and Bracelet Bay – have retained Blue Flag status for their quality of water, environmental education and management, safety and services.

The Blue Flag Award is a highly respected international across 49 countries.

Our city centre has retained prestigious Purple Flag status, demonstrating it’s a great, diverse and safe place to spend a night out. Well done to all involved.

A high-profile visitor has called into the Dylan Thomas Exhibition to find out about Dylan’s links with the USA. Lewis Lukens, the Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in London, was shown around the exhibition by our literature officer, Jo Furber.

Blog

I’m on leave next week so my next blog will be on June 9.

Regenerating Our City Centre

June 9, 2016 by Martin 4 Comments

Occasionally I’ll be using part of my blog to update everyone with progress against our Corporate Priorities. This week the focus is on the city centre.

In February, 1941, Swansea was targeted by the German air force in a series of bombing raids popularly known as the Three Night Blitz. The city centre was almost completely flattened; 230 people were killed and more than 7,000 were left homeless.

The following decades saw attempts to regenerate the core retail area. Some, for example The Quadrant, were successful while others, most notably the St David’s Shopping Centre, were not. Overall the city centre is failing to achieve its potential. It has too few residents and workers, dated public realm and limited, poor quality office provision. Unless this is addressed the retail and leisure offer in the city centre will not improve and the region will decline. In the modern economy cities are the engines of economic growth and so this is a priority for the Council and the whole of South West Wales through the Swansea Bay City Region Board.

The response of the Council in recent years has been to develop a plan in the form of the Swansea City Centre Strategic Framework and to encourage a programme of development on key sites. You will probably be aware that the team in Economic Regeneration and Planning are working closely with development partners, Rivington and Trebor, on the St David’s and Civic Centre sites (weblinks).

Over the coming months we’re likely to see significant activity in the city centre and I’ll try to keep you up to date on developments in my blog. This week saw the announcement that the Council is considering the future of Castle Square and, subject to the outcome of the public open space process, will draw up a development brief for consultation. I would encourage everyone to respond to this. Also, the new development at Mariner Street was approved at Planning Committee this week and this will generate activity and footfall in the High Street.

Corporate Management Team (formerly the Executive Board) this week considered the next Staff Survey following some interesting and valuable feedback from the Innovation Community. Of particular interest to me is the proposal to improve the survey process so that more people are likely to take part. Over the past two years the survey has provided an important insight into the reality and the perceptions of working for the Council and we’ve been able to act together to tackle some of the issues, for example through the Show Bullying the Red Light campaign. The survey will take place this autumn and will be available online with hard copies being made available via managers, at our main sites, in staff canteens and libraries. There will be more information about this in future blogs.

As part of the senior management review Council agreed in April that a new post of Chief Transformation Officer be established to drive forward the modernisation of the Council. The post will be advertised in the next few weeks but we need to increase the pace of this work immediately. On Tuesday Mike Hawes and I interviewed candidates to act up into this position until the longer term appointment is made. I am delighted to announce that Sarah Caulkin has been appointed and will take up the post immediately. The implementation of the new model for business support is the priority and this will impact upon us all over the coming weeks and months.

I was shocked and saddened to hear of the sudden death of Ian Thomas, Principal Officer for Health and Safety last Sunday. I have known Ian for many years and worked with him in Housing, Business Support and more recently in his role with Corporate Health and Safety. Ian was a respected and well liked officer who will be deeply missed. My thoughts go to his family, friends and colleagues at their loss.

The EU Referendum date is almost upon us and I visited the Elections team last week as they sent out the postal votes. I’m grateful for their hard work and look forward to seeing them again on the day of the Referendum. This is an important decision for Swansea, Wales and the UK and I hope as many of us as possible will exercise their right to vote on June 23.

On the subject of voting I’d like to take the opportunity to remind everyone that nominations for this year’s High 5 awards close on July 22. The High 5 Awards are open to any child or young person in three age ranges (up to 13, 14-19, and 20-25) or group and they have to either be a resident, educated in or receiving support in Swansea. They celebrate the inspirational achievements of children and young people, culminating in the Awards Ceremony at the Liberty Stadium in the autumn. Our former Chief Executive, Jack Straw, has agreed to be on the judging panel for the awards.

Good luck to our Scrutiny team and Members who’ll find out next week if they’ve won an MJ Award for ‘Excellence in Governance and Scrutiny’

And finally good luck to the Wales national football team in the first match of the European Championships against Slovakia on Saturday. The match kicks off at 5pm and will be shown live on the big screen in Castle Square – well done to our Events team. I know football isn’t everyone’s taste but it’s the first occasion in my lifetime that Wales have qualified for a major international football competition so it certainly is a reason for celebration. Come on Wales!