Apologies for missing my regular bi-monthly councillor blog end of April - I don’t know where the last four months have gone! So here’s 4 months worth …
From March onwards there were all the usual council meetings, Governance & Audit (G&A), Licensing, Local Policing, Trustees, Social Care & Tackling Poverty (SCTP), Equalities group (SEFG), and council itself. And in the community I held my monthly surgeries, and attended other meetings such as for the Phoenix Centre trust, Mayhill Community Centre, Dylan Thomas Community School’s governor’s meeting, and our local Friends of group.
In April the subcommittee I sit on which looks at how best to use the lighting for the Guildhall to recognise the wide variety of groups in Swansea met this month. There are so many requests from our widely diverse groups across Swansea, everything from armed forces to Chinese New Year so from time to time we review the list to be as fair as possible, especially when responding to new requests.
This month also saw some streets in the ward taking part in a new waste management trial in collecting other plastic that cannot go in the usual pink bags. I fully support this initiative as in my view anything that helps clear away unsightly & often unhealthy rubbish from our streets has to be a good thing.
I attended our annual ceremonial council in May, carried out with much pomp & tradition, with invited guests including the High Sheriff, Lord Lieutenant, and the Lord Mayor’s chosen chaplain. I always feel that the original council chamber in the Guildhall, with its formal layout and furnishings, is exactly the right setting for such an event.
June saw a very varied month for other activities, starting with visiting Ynystawe Primary School as vice chair of Trustees to see how they had used money from a recently accessed fund to provide a community reading room – very impressed with the pupil friendly layout, and diversity of books available.
Also I had the opportunity to sing the praises, in the main, of Swansea when attending the session organised by the Welsh Local Government Association – the feedback from the peer local authority asking the questions was very encouraging.
Another very interesting session I went was looking at declaring some new Local Nature Reserves across the city, including Hillside which would cross Townhill ward. This would incorporate the area our Friends of group currently cover, which may well secure a positive future for some time to come.
I attended Armed Forces Day flag raising ceremony at the Rotunda. This was the start of a week recognising all armed forces, currently serving, retired and those lost in times of conflict.
As Diversity Champion I attended the LGBTQ+ forum meeting. This followed on from the excellent Pride parade along St Helens Road, and the event in & outside the Brangwyn Hall, held earlier in the year.
I’m already governor on DTCS but have also joined the board at GCS which feeds into the senior school. On the last day of June attended my first training session on the process of dealing with staff Disciplinary hearings, the first of many no doubt.
On a final note, a letter to the local paper recently gave the impression that door knocking was the only way we as councillors get feedback from the electorate. Hopefully anyone who has read my blog will realise that we have other ways such holding regular surgeries where residents can raise issues, and public meetings, drop-in sessions, surveys, or petitions, to find out views on a particular issue. We do our best to take those views into account when deciding what action to take, but obviously cannot what always do what a resident wants us to. As my Dad used to say we can’t please all the people all of the time!
Les
