city deal – Page 3

Reassurance on our high-rise blocks

July 7, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Update on our high rise blocks

This week we continued our work on tenant reassurance at our high rise blocks. It’s been a difficult week, starting on Saturday morning when I received notification that four blocks had failed the UK Government tests. By mid-morning on Sunday our magnificent staff had implemented all the required measures and more and the Housing team had delivered reassurance messages to all 672 tenants. This was a massive piece of work and I’m indebted to staff in Housing, Corporate Building and Communications for their brilliant response.

Four of our high-rise buildings – three at Clyne Court and Jeffreys Court – contain Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) and were tested at the request of the Welsh Government. Our other seven sites have not been tested because they do not contain ACM. The tests failed and we’ve been seeking further advice from the Welsh and UK Governments. So far all cladding tested from buildings in England and Wales have failed the tests.

However, we were advised on Tuesday that additional tests on the full system that we’ve been asking for over the last fortnight had been carried out by BRE on panels that are identical to the ones used in Swansea.

These additional tests – known as BR 135 – confirm the panels are fully compliant with building regulations. This provides further reassurance to tenants about the safety of their homes because it confirms the cladding will not contribute to the spread of a fire should there be one.

We’ve communicated this to our tenants and we’ve shared the information with Welsh Government as we hope they’ll confirm our understanding of the situation as soon as possible in order that tenants are fully reassured.

And yesterday there were more developments. Firstly, the Welsh Government requested a review of school buildings before the end of term. And then the UK Government finally announced new testing of the entire cladding system – something we’ve requested for the past two weeks.

Leadership Team

At Leadership Team Directors and Heads of Service considered ways of increasing the number of staff who reply to our annual staff survey. This’ll be the fourth year we’ve done the survey and we want as many staff as possible to complete it. We have to use different methods to reach different staff, especially those who don’t have access to IT in work. If you have any ideas please let me know.

We also had a demo of the new contact portal that we’ll be introducing to our switchboard. Staff can use voice-activation when using the switchboard from September and then we’ll roll it out for the public. Other councils and organisations use it successfully and with more than 20,000 calls into our switchboard every month this should help make us more efficient in dealing with staff and customer calls.

Poverty Forum

Reducing poverty is one of the five corporate objectives and we can use our power as an employer, developer, landlord and investor to achieve this. Opportunities like Welsh Housing Quality Standard, City Deal and tidal lagoon don’t come round every day so we must exploit them to the full.

This week I chaired a meeting of the Poverty Forum Network, an internal officer group, to take stock on where we are, think about how we will monitor progress and agree some key projects to work on.

The recently revised poverty strategy and delivery plan and scrutiny work makes this the right time to reignite the corporate approach through the poverty forum and I’m going to put my personal time and commitment into this and I’d like all staff to do the same.

Congratulations and thanks

The Wales Airshow last weekend was the best yet with 250,000 people enjoying the event. We owe a huge vote of thanks to all those involved in the logistics of this event. Our traffic team managed the required road closures, the special events team were a model of efficiency as were all the staff and volunteers who helped with running the event and clearing up afterwards. The Council even got a round of applause at the end! I’m very proud of all who contributed because it is a massive challenge to deliver this event. Well done all.

I’m delighted the city centre has retained its prestigious Purple Flag status. It was first awarded the status in 2015 in recognition of the excellence of its evening and night-time economy.

Rhys Harries in our Trading Standards Team received the Special Individual Achievement Award at the Anti-Counterfeiting Group (ACG) Awards. Rhys was instrumental in an investigation that resulted in £1 million of counterfeit goods being seized.

Events

Following on from the Airshow, there’s a lot happening in the next few weeks. The Soapbox Science returns to the city centre on Saturday to promote cutting edge research and encourage children to take an interest in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) subjects.

On Sunday the ‘Eid in the Park’ event is being hosted by Swansea University in Abbey Meadow on the Singleton Campus from 11.30am to 4.30pm. It’s a great family event.

Swansea’s International Dance Festival, Dance Days, also returns this weekend with a mix of free dance performance for everyone.

And the annual Swansea Beach Soccer Festival returns to Swansea Bay on Saturday, July 8 to promote sport and the area as a hub for sport and activity.

In the election spotlight

June 9, 2017 by Martin 2 Comments

This has been another long 24 hours for me and the team who help me to run the UK Government Parliamentary election. I cast my vote as soon as my polling station opened and was greeted by an amazingly cheery and bright-eyed polling station team of Mal, Geraldine and Rebecca. Like all the other polling station staff they faced a long day and I am hugely indebted to everyone who helped run this election. Thanks for the warm welcome from the staff in the polling stations I was able to visit.

The elections team once again exceeded expectations, despite only just recovering from last month’s council elections. This time we faced heightened security concerns following the dreadful events at Manchester and London Bridge and the support from our security staff and special events team was outstanding. I was also grateful for the work done by our resilience team working with the Police.

Congratulations to Dean Howard, the first presiding officer to deliver his ballot papers to the election count. Dean came second at the local government election count but beat his personal best by arriving at around 10.15. As you can see from the photo Dean was pretty pleased with his performance. Mind you his polling station was only 100 yards from the count.

We had a lot of attention on the Gower constituency given the closeness of the 2015 result; a margin of only 27 votes. This wasn’t just from the local and national media companies. Gower was one of eight constituencies across the UK to be visited by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association team led by Callum Forster and made up of politicians from the governments of Bangladesh, South Africa, St Lucia and Ghana. Each of the eight constituencies is the subject of an election assessment to consider the conduct of the electoral process, and make recommendations for improvement. On Tuesday Huw Evans and I met with the CPA team and answered a range of questions about the electoral process and how it operates here in Swansea. They also visited the postal vote team and a number of polling stations in the Gower constituency. I look forward to their feedback and any suggestions on how the process could be improved in future. Huw and I made a few suggestions of our own which would require changes to national legislation and hopefully the CPA team will take these on board.

Congratulations to the MPs who have been elected to represent our three constituencies;

Swansea West – Geraint Davies

Swansea East – Carolyn Harris

Gower – Tonia Antoniazzi

Appointments

This week the appointments committee met to shortlist candidates for the post of Director of Resources. Interviews will be held on 26^th June and I am confident that Council will be able make an appointment the following day.

On a different note a number of people have asked me why the post of Chief Executive has been advertised. When I was appointed to the post last year it was on an interim basis for one year. Under local government rules interim appointments of the most senior staff should only be for a year. It was my view, and the Leader’s view, that an interim appointment would be the best way forward because it would allow the newly elected Council to choose their own permanent Chief Executive.

Approval of Swansea Central planning application

On Tuesday Planning Committee considered the planning application for Swansea Central. I have mentioned the project a number of times in previous blogs but the approval by Planning committee was a significant milestone and a green light to proceed with the regeneration plan for our City Centre. Comments at the committee reflected the quality and detail of the application. This has required a mammoth effort from our staff and a lot of people deserve to be thanked for their contributions not least of which are Phil Holmes, Huw Mowbray, Lee Richards, Katy Evans, Ryan Thomas, David Owen, Liam Smith and Stephen Smith.

The next phase is delivery and will be equally challenging but I am delighted that the key milestones have been met and confident that we can progress this apace.

Trading Standards

A Trading Standards case in Crown Court earlier this week has determined that a local shop owner jailed for selling dangerous ‘legal highs’ must now pay back more than £120,000 of the money he gained during the years he traded. This is great news and a further example of the hard work by Trading Standards and our Legal Team who have vigorously pursued the case, ensuring individuals do not profit from harmful trading activities.

City Centre

Demolition of the former Oceana building on Kingsway is now about 50% finished. Experts from Cuddy Group, who are demolishing the building for the council, are continuing to dismantle what remains of the building with a high-reach excavator. Scheduled for completion this summer, the demolition will pave the way on site for a new office development accommodating tech businesses.

High 5 Awards

Nominations are starting to increase for this year’s High 5 awards but we want more. The High 5 awards are open to any child, young person or group in three age ranges – under 13s, aged 14 to 19 or 20-25 year olds. We’ve also added a schools award this year which looks to recognise and reward larger school groups, even whole classes, years or teams.

All nominators need to do is fill in a nomination form here where they get the chance to explain why their choice of nominee should get a High 5, whatever the reason might be.

We’ve made it even more accessible to answer any query you have about High 5 this year with a new phone number we’ve set up. If you have a query or would like to leave a voice nomination call (01792) 635699 and leave a message.

UNESCO

Next week we will welcome visitors from across the UK and Europe who are keen to find out how Swansea is encouraging children and adults alike to learn about enterprise.

We were the first city in the UK to become a member of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities and are hosting a two-day meeting on Wednesday and Thursday.

Visitors will hear how we have worked with schools, colleges and universities to reduce the number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET), and see at first hand the extensive efforts to inspire young people to think about setting up their own businesses.

More than a dozen delegates are expected from as far afield as Scandinavia. I hope we will all give them a warm welcome.

Agile working

In the Civic Centre it’s great to see our new Agile Working area expanding. It’s encouraging to read the positivity coming from staff already there. I particularly like Marlyn Dickson’s observation in her case study: “Business conversations are so much easier … every working day feels much more human and personable.” Still wondering what it’s all about? Pop in and chat to some of your colleagues there!

Congratulations

It was great to hear that Burlais Primary School will soon be home to a garden from the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show after their success in the Greening Grey Britain project. The new school which was completed in 2015 will soon have a courtyard filled with plant life and colour. There was great coverage on the One Show last Monday as well. Congratulations to Alison Bastion and her team.

Congratulations also to transformation officer Gemma Whyley, who helped lead a Welsh team to glory at a major global cheerleading championships in the USA. Gemma was one of two coaches involved with the Welsh Paracheer Unified Freestyle Pom team that won gold at the ICU International Cheerleading and Dance World Championships held in Orlando, Florida. Twenty-five per cent of the team – the first ever from Wales to win at the championships – is made up of young athletes with physical disabilities.

And finally….

Are you going to the Take That concert at the Liberty Stadium on Wednesday evening (June 14)?

If you are, then all the info you’ll need on car parking, taxi tips, drop-off points, pick-up points and road closures is here. My thanks to staff in special events and transport for all their work in the build-up to the event to ensure it runs as smoothly as possible.

Our global platform

March 17, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Global platform

On Monday I travelled to France with the Leader and Huw Mowbray, our Property Development Manager, to attend the international property conference, MIPIM. This is the biggest conference of its type in the world, attracting 23,000 people from 90 countries and gives local authorities a platform to present their proposals for regeneration and development to funders, developers, agents and retailers. We’re conscious of the spending restrictions so we were delighted to be invited by UK Trade & Industry department in Whitehall to present our City Deal and City Centre proposals in the Downing Street pavilion, along with colleagues from Belfast and Glasgow. It was a whistle-stop 24-hour tour which involved a number of discussions with funders and businesses and a presentation by the Leader on the opportunities on offer in Swansea.

Sharing the platform with two other major UK cities has raised awareness of our ambitions as a council worldwide and I’m confident the contacts we made and discussions we had will bear fruit in our quest to secure the City Deal and all that it brings. An announcement is imminent. Dozens of UK councils attended but very few could compete with the quality of work done by our officers, as reflected in the fly-through we commissioned to illustrate the proposition. I’m grateful for all their efforts which epitomise the Team Swansea approach we have been fostering.

Lindsay’s leaving

Today is the last day at the council for Lindsay Harvey our Chief Education Officer.

Anyone who has met Lindsay will know he’s a larger than life character and brings a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and commitment. He has done a fantastic job and some of the progress we’ve made in our schools has been outstanding. I’ll miss Lindsay but I also wish him well in his new post at Bridgend. Nick Williams will be taking over form him and I wish him well.

Senior management review

A report is going to Council on March 23 setting out proposals for restructuring corporate services. The proposals give us a strong platform to progress our business support plans and improve efficiency across the council. If approved by councillors the proposals will be subject to consultation when staff can give their views. The report is available via this link.

Danygraig school

On a visit to St Thomas and Port Tennant I received a warm welcome at Danygraig Primary School. Headteacher Stuart Davies gave me a tour of the school, along with pupils Danushan, Carlo, Ruby and Poppy.

It’s a very old building and I saw the improvements being made by our team in Corporate Building & Property Service. This included a window replacement programme which is helping to keep the building wind and weather proof. This probably shouldn’t include replacing one of the windows which was knocked skew whiff during the three nights blitz and has sat at an unusual angle ever since; a historical legacy that tells its own story!

The teachers are really committed and this school is a real hub of the community. Of course the history of the area is entwined with Swansea docks and overlooks the SA1 district and the location of the proposed Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon. I’ll speak to the Tidal Lagoon company about cementing strong links with the school, along with St Thomas primary, and to make sure that the children are properly engaged in these proposals. The enthusiasm of Stuart and the staff was impressive, reflecting the level of commitment to empowering the pupils to achieve their potential that I see every week in our schools.

Learning needs

The Corporate Management Team received a presentation on the Commissioning Review of Additional Learning Needs (ALN) in the city. Mark Sheridan gave an informative presentation about the work carried out by his team and the challenges the service faces. This is a really important issue for us all and it was encouraging to hear about the corporate commitment to supporting ALN and the great work being done by teaching staff inside and outside schools. The review will be carried on beyond the second gateway report and whilst much remains to be done the rate of progress and analysis is impressive.

Purdah

A reminder that today marks the start of the Purdah period. The restrictions relate to social media as well as general publicity so please read the guidance and help us to ensure a fair and transparent election. For the electoral anoraks amongst us the word “purdah” is a derivation of the Persian word “pardeh” meaning curtain, or veil.

Inspirational youngster

Alfie Walters was recognised at an awards ceremony this week. The 16-year-old from Dylan Thomas School was on a shortlist of three from across the UK for the Educational Achiever Award at The Prince’s Trust annual celebration at the London Palladium. Alfie’s mum passed away when he was just 11. Less than three years later, he also lost his dad, and along with his sisters, he was taken into care. Despite this and with support from the school, our Looked After Children team and The Prince’s Trust he achieved a Level 2 Award on The Prince’s Trust Achieve programme. His skills have made him an excellent ambassador for the trust and he has been invited back to the school to motivate and encourage younger pupils. Well done Alfie.

Film award

This part of the world is well known for its big screen connections and now we can add our own Child and Family Services to the list. They worked with 15 youngsters between the ages of 11 and 19 to create a short film which was crowned Best Animation: 13 and Over at the Into Film Awards in London this week. Judges at the ceremony at the Odeon Cinema in London’s Leicester Square described it as “wonderful and imaginative” and “technically highly accomplished”. Having watched the film I agree with their sentiments. Congratulations to all involved. You can watch the film here: https://vimeo.com/201657295

Awards

We’ve been shortlisted in two categories of the iESE Awards – Transformation Through Support Services and Transformation in Waste & Environment. Well done to all the staff involved and good luck at the awards ceremony.

Pool rescue

Staff at the Wales National Pool saved a male swimmer suffering heart problems. Mark Jones, the duty manager, and his team responded magnificently. The swimmer was taken to hospital and has since contacted staff to thank them. The nurse who attended the scene paid this tribute: “They clearly saved a gentleman’s life today. Mark and the team should be highly commended for a calm, well-practiced Resuscitation.” Our water safety team train the pool staff so well done and thank you to everyone involved.

Sports Awards

Three employees were honoured at last night’s Swansea Sports Awards. Karen Gibbins (Libraries) won the Volunteer of the Year award and Adam Thomas (Cultural Services volunteer) was named Young Volunteer of the Year. Sam Richards (Cultural Services) was runner-up in the Volunteer of the Year category. Well done to all three who are great ambassadors for us.

Farewell

Aeron Kirczey is retiring from the Highways Service after 40 years’ service. Aeron has been a major contributor in advising on highways issues during the planning process and I’m grateful for his input into many of the major schemes he’s worked on.

Also Graham Williams is retiring from Child and Family Services after 42 years’ service. For the majority of his career Graham worked principally within the Child Protection Conference Unit where the model of practice and policies developed were considered innovative and enabled Swansea conference process to be valued as leading the way in policy development. Graham’s commitment to the service over the last 42 years has been really impressive and he’ll be greatly missed.

I wish them well in their retirement and thank them both for their many years in public service.

Apprentice strategy launch

March 10, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Apprentice strategy launch

We launched of our Apprenticeship Strategy in the George Hall on Monday. It builds on the success of the apprenticeship scheme running in Corporate Building Services and is now a broader Corporate Strategy to run across all service areas. The aim is to provide apprenticeships, training and work experience opportunities including graduate placements and internships

This has been developed by a working group of representatives from across the council following the agreement in principle by Cabinet in July 2016.

Given our corporate priorities relating to poverty and safeguarding it’s essential we target opportunities for disadvantaged groups, particularly given our role as a corporate parent and we must reduce the barriers to allow access to these opportunities. I’ll be taking a personal interest in seeing this happens.

Apprenticeships are key to develop skills needed for the future and will help address skill shortages. I’m indebted to Martin Nicholls, Director of Place, and his team for their enthusiasm and drive in preparing the strategy. The team are preparing guides for managers to help provide a consistent approach to taking on an apprentice, trainee or offering work experience. We‘ll also work with other public sector bodies and learn from best practice available. We’ve already advertised 14 opportunities and we’ll be seeking to identify 30 to 40 more during the next few months.

Along with Martin, the Leader and Councillor Andrea Lewis, Cabinet Member for Next Generation Services, spoke at the launch to underline their commitment to the strategy. We must now make sure it’s delivered across the organisation as effectively and efficiently as possible.

This week I almost met Lord Heseltine!

It’s been a frustrating week for those of us involved in the Swansea Bay City Deal. I mentioned last week that following the pitch to the UK Government we had provided all the information requested and were optimistic the deal could be agreed and announced in Wednesday’s budget. The final meeting was arranged with Lord Heseltine here in Swansea on budget day but was cancelled following his sacking late on Tuesday evening. As a result we held yet another meeting with civil servants to go back over some old ground. The budget statement included the following words, which stopped some distance short of what we had hoped for:

“The government continues to make good progress towards city deals for Edinburgh and Swansea and is working constructively with local partners and the Scottish and Welsh Governments respectively to achieve this.”

The meeting with civil servants was followed by a session with representatives from the private sector who have given strong support for our bid. I detected a lot of impatience and frustration from many of these representatives who are struggling to understand why the Welsh Government considers the deal complete, but the UK Government does not. The Leader and I will be doing whatever we can to push this given that every day of delay is a missed opportunity for our citizens.

This week I did meet Sir Charles Hendry

On Tuesday evening the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress hosted a dinner for Sir Charles Hendry, author of the Government review into tidal lagoons. It was an opportunity to discuss the report and its findings and learn about the process of how the report was commissioned and delivered by Sir Charles. It became clear that Sir Charles has not only learned a lot about the city, he has also developed a fondness for it. He reiterated his conclusion that the lagoon must be built and that we must get on with it immediately so it was also frustrating that there was no mention of it in the Chancellor’s budget speech on Wednesday. We remain optimistic that an announcement is imminent.

Congratulations

Swansea has two nominations at a national film award ceremony next week. Our Child and Family Services worked with 15 young people to make a short film about being in care and it’s on a shortlist of three in the Best Animation: 13 and Over category at the Into Film Awards.

And Amy Parry, from Cwmrhydyceirw Primary School in Morriston, is on the shortlist for Teacher of the Year.

Into Film is a UK-wide charity that aims to raise standards of achievement and aspiration among youngsters through film and the awards take place at the Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square on Tuesday (March 14). Fingers crossed for both when the golden envelopes, hopefully the right ones, are opened.

Last Friday we took part in the Patient Choice Awards at Singleton Hospital. It was introduced by the ABMU Health Board back in 2015 to give patients, carers, relatives and visitors the chance to say thanks to a member of staff or team they feel have made a real difference and provided outstanding care.

The ceremony saw some of our social workers and care workers stand alongside district nurses, GPs and therapists in being recognised for the work they have done.

It was a terrific opportunity to celebrate the commitment they give to helping vulnerable adults to stay safe and independent and really demonstrated that our staff go above and beyond, showing professionalism, kindness and compassion to people at really difficult times in their lives. Well done to everyone involved.

The Swansea Bay 10k organised by our events team has been shortlisted in two categories for this year’s Running Awards: best 10k and best child-friendly event.

Voting closes on Monday March 20, so head to this link to get your vote in and make sure the event gets the recognition it deserves.

Info-Nation was re-launched this week, providing free and confidential information and advice on a range of subjects including sexual health, relationships, substance misuse and finding work.

It now includes the Bays+ service which provides services for young people aged 16 or older who are in need of care, support or accommodation. DrugAid Cymru also has its ‘Choices’ young people’s service based in the shop for a number of years.

Today is the last working day at the council for John Lewis, our Principal Design and Technical Officer, based in Cultural Services. John has worked for us since October 1974 when he started with Swansea City Council as a Draughtsman and then Graphic Designer. Since then he’s held a range of posts in Tourism and was instrumental in helping me with the first blue plaque in Swansea in tribute to Pete Ham. Since then he’s helped me with many other things – always with patience and good humour – and I’ll miss his knowledge, skills and innovation very much. I wish him a long and happy retirement.

Celebrating diversity

March 3, 2017 by Martin Leave a Comment

Our Abertawe

On Saturday we’ll be staging our new “Our Abertawe – Celebrating Swansea Together” event. This is an opportunity to celebrate Swansea and what it means to us all as individuals and together, whether a Jack by birth or habit; disabled; young; or old; whatever our sexual orientation, beliefs, culture, language or abilities. Many communities make up our diverse City and the events will focus on bringing people together to celebrate Swansea and what it means to us all.

It will be held at Castle Square from 11am till 6.30pm, ending with a parade from Castle Square to the National Waterfront Museum. The main exhibition marquee will be located on Princess Way and will include various information, activity and cultural stands as well as an exhibition celebrating the history of Swansea’s cultural diversity.

There’ll be stages for performances at Castle Square and Portland Street, along with busking sites throughout the city centre. Cookery demonstrations and workshops will take place in a marquee on Princess Way and there’s a treasure hunt at our fantastic Swansea Market for children.

The Big Screen will show two special videos. ‘My Swansea’ – produced by students from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the second video has been developed by Chinese students from Swansea University capturing what Swansea is all about.

Also part of the event is the returning AberDewi festival which includes a Twmpath, St Davids Parade, choral sing along of Calon Lan and the rhythms of Samba Tawe.

Local schools are involved in the day with a number of junior schools entering the dragon competition to head the parade. The senior schools are taking part in an “Apprentice”-style competition, which involves raising money on the day for two charities for the homeless.

The Saturday event is unique which will celebrate both our Welsh heritage and Swansea’s modern, multi-cultural make-up.

I’m indebted to all who have helped to organise this fantastic event, but particularly grateful to Riaz Hassan, our Regional Community Cohesion Coordinator based in Poverty and Prevention, who has worked tirelessly on it.

For the latest information take a look at this link.

Pontarddulais School

A few weeks ago I visited Pontarddulais Comprehensive School for the first time. I was shown around the building and its grounds by four enthusiastic pupils who were excellent ambassadors and a credit to the school. I was impressed by the genuine respect for pupil voice at Pontarddulais and the commitment to working together as a team for the benefit of the whole school community. This was underlined in the discussion that followed with the pupils and the head teacher, Jan Waldron. Jan was very clear about how the approach had helped to create a positive learning environment for the school and this is certainly borne out by the excellent results being achieved by the students. Thanks to Jan and all at Pontarddulais for the warm welcome and a highly interesting and informative afternoon.

It came as no surprise, therefore, when I learned that Pontarddulais Comprehensive, along with Cefn Hengoed Community School, St Helen’s Primary and Penllergaer Primary schools received “Excellent” inspection judgements from ESTYN. I understand that on March 9 ESTYN will be holding an awards evening for schools, colleges and other providers who received ‘Excellent’ inspection judgements for current performance, prospects for improvement (or both) in the academic year 2015–16. This event will focus on the common factors that lie behind excellence and improvement and how inspection supports this. Congratulations and thanks to all.

Pentre’r Graig School

On Tuesday I attended the opening of the newly-refurbished Pentre’r Graig Primary School in Morriston. The school has undergone extensive remodelling under our 21st Century Schools Programme with £2.7m of investment funded jointly by us and the Welsh Government. The work was undertaken by our Corporate Building and Property Services team and I’m delighted to say they’ve done an excellent job in what must have been very difficult circumstances. It can’t be easy to deliver a complex refurbishment project whilst keeping the school running, but aided by our Education team and the patience and support of the school staff and pupils, the job is almost complete.

The pupils welcomed the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, local councillors and governors and conducted a whistle-stop tour of the new facilities, including the “Learning Street”. We also had a couple of songs and some highly entertaining discussions with the pupils.

I was sad to hear that the head teacher, Julie Tucker, will soon be retiring because she’s done such an excellent job not only seeing the school refurbished and transformed but also achieving “green status” in the schools categorisation in the process. Congratulations to Julie and her team.

Culture bid

We’re bidding for UK City of Culture 2021. After reaching the shortlist for the 2017 title, we hope to go one step further this time. A successful bid will provide a significant boost to the city’s regeneration as we set out a commitment to not only deliver a 12-month festival of world class arts and cultural activity, but also to create long-lasting benefits for residents, the economy and visitors to the city.

City Deal

Another bid hopefully coming to fruition is the City Deal. Following the Leader’s recent presentation to a team including Lord Heseltine it looks like we’ll have some positive news next week. Our officers have continued to supply extra information requested by the UK and Welsh governments and Lord Heseltine, and we’re now satisfied we’ve done everything asked of us.

Apprentice scheme

We’re launching our new Corporate Apprentice and Trainee Strategy in an event at Guildhall on Monday (March 6). To coincide with the launch and the start of National Apprenticeship Week, we’ll soon be advertising for new apprentices in our corporate building and adult social care departments. Other apprentice and trainee positions could also soon be made available in departments including IT, waste management, highways, economic regeneration and parks.

Some apprenticeship and work experience placements would be specifically targeted at young people, the long-term unemployed and disadvantaged groups. Opportunities would also link into our corporate parenting role for young people leaving care.

The new strategy is initially being launched as a pilot scheme to help us get a better understanding of realistic targets and sources of funding that may be available.

Recycling success

It’s great to see that changes made as part of the on-going commissioning reviews are having a positive impact. In Waste Management, changes to some of the city’s recycling centres have resulted in us now sending 800 tonnes less waste to landfill sites each month since the changes were made. Well done to everyone involved.

New competition?

leek Geoff Mellor in Housing took inspiration from our Christmas jumper competition for this week’s St David’s celebrations. He claims to have invented the worst St David’s Day leek-tie competition!! Despite his efforts, unfortunately, as the only entrant he won’t be getting a prize. However the bonus Geoff is that at least when it goes out of fashion he can eat it. Thank you Geoff, you made me smile!