July was a bit unusual as it had all my regular committees bar one, Trustees, so here's a flavour of what cropped up at each of them ... General Licensing - the usual mix of taxi related cases to decide on; some issues come up frequently so part of our remit is to compile new guidance to ensure we deal with them as consistently as possible.
Audit - our usual meeting was preceded with training on Governance, and Financial Management & Accounts; both short, but very much to the point and very useful.
Student Liaison - as well as the usual round-up from all partners, such as the universities, police etc, we made further progress in setting up a parking Task & Finish group; it's aim is to address the age old problem of too many cars and not enough spaces!
Poverty Policy Development - included a very interesting presentation on Truth Commissions, broadly a collaboration of all those either affected or involved in trying to alleviate poverty; we then had a discussion as to whether or not to introduce one in Swansea.
Full council - with a presentation from Swansea Carers; this organisation provides support for those who often selflessly spend many hours looking after someone else in their family.
Democratic Services - looking in particular at it's annual report and a draft Social Media Guidance; this should prove very helpful so that councillors can get to grips with the dos and don'ts, both generally and from a legal perspective.
Amongst other council related activities I was pleased to attend the AGM of one of our community centres, where a new enthusiastic committee was elected. So much better when the community itself helps in their own community.
Les
