I now have three Friends of groups that I am involved in. As you will know Mayhill Washing 'Lake' & Community Food Garden is doing very well, having won two awards this year. But two new Friends of groups are being formed, one being for Mayhill Park, which is the green space next to the new Health Centre. This has already had two meetings, elected the Chair, Secretary and Treasurer, and another meeting is planned for October. The other group is for Paradise Park, which will soon have its second meeting to get it going. I may well have mentioned this before but for me these have a double positive whammy in that they involve and empower people in the community, and is gradually getting across the message that the council not only doesn't do everything but indeed doesn't NEED to be doing everything.
Ever since the inception of Policy Development Committees (PDC) I have been involved with the one looking at Poverty but have now changed tack, having joined the one on Equalities & Transformation. But I'm sure that tackling poverty will still be an element in the work that we do.
Amongst other meetings, we had an interesting Audit meeting which included a session looking at the effectiveness of the committee itself. The feedback will be collated and we will get the results at a session before October's meeting, so watch this space!
And the month's full council meeting had one of those rare performances by yours truly, which if you are interested (or desperate enough!) can be watched on the webcast at
http://civico.net/swansea/swansea/7484, in Item 11.
Les
