Easter Time

Bit of a lull over Easter, but since I last blogged I attended an extra Council meeting solely to appoint Head of Corporate Sevices.  This was quite interesting, especially being on an ‘interview panel’ potentially 72 strong!

Some years back I was very involved in LASA, 

139 Walter Road Swansea SA1 5RQ.
Telephone: 01792 643632
Email: query@lasacreditunion.org.uk

the local credit union, and recently felt that the time was right to renew my aquaintance.  Hence I have gone back on the board, and since then attended the AGM and my first board meeting.  I do feel both very desperate and very angry about people being conned by firms like Wonga – personally I think their TV adverts should be banned!  So I’m hoping that by being involved again I can actually do something practical to help.  Tackling payday loan companies is definitely top of my list.

Also went to the shortest council meeting on record, for me at least – unavoidably late but only by a couple of minutes and they had already got to AOB!!!

Les

Strange Times

It’s been a strange old fortnight (and yes, by some miracle it’s only been two weeks since I last did my blog, and no, I don’t understand it either!)  In that time I’ve actually been able to fit in a bit more ‘life’ yet still been to, or done, ten council related events.

One of these was an informal meeting to look at issues which were raised at my first ever Community Centre meeting - yes, yet another first even after being on the council since last May.  I believe there is the will from the council to give support to help develop the activities put on in these centres.  Unfortunately the centre management committees spend a lot of their time on building related problems, so my aim is to give help on that front.  Then they can concentrate instead on what is far more worthwhile, making best use of the centre.

I mentioned the Wellbeing & Attainment scrutiny panel in my last blog, and this week have done the last school visit, to a special unit. The children, whose ages range from 3 to 19, all have some degree of physical and/or mental disability.  They are all different so the approach of the school is to recognise that fact by developing an individual education programme for every one.  The staff without exception were all friendly and welcoming, and their obvious patience showed in the way they worked with every child.  An amazing and quite humbling experience.

Les

Planning for the Future

Scrutiny has played quite a big part in my diary over the last couple of weeks.  I’ve been attending some school visits as part of the Wellbeing & Attainment panel.  It’s been very encouraging to see the length & depth of the strategies in place to support pupils, both to get the most out of school and prepare them for the future.  There seems to be much more of a culture of two-way respect than I seem to remember from school life in ‘my day’.

As quite a contrast I have also been to one scrutiny meeting of the Allotments working party.  This turned out to be much broader than the term suggests, looking not only at standard allotments but also other forms of community growing.  All present agreed that there was scope for more meetings to follow up the initial positive discussions.

As well as other regular meetings we had the ‘full’ planning meeting last Thursday ie where all councillors are expected to attend.  In addition to the usual planning applications that had been defered to this meeting, there was a very interesting presentation on a proposal to have a Tidal Lagoon in Swansea.  This would be quite a long term strategy aiming for 2017, and would be finally decided upon by central government.  So it was just a chance for us to ask questions with no decisions involved, but personally I certainly think it is not only a very exciting project, but would also bring much needed jobs and many other benefits to Swansea.

Les

It's been a long day - twice!

I know, its been a month (again!) since the last one but I’ve got loads of reasons – honest!

In that time I’ve endured a grotty cold – typically the worst of it was over a weekend! – and have had a couple of weekends away.  I’ve still managed to do my famous juggling act between business, council (and life!) and in the last fortnight have attended the two longest meetings so far at 4 & 5 hours.  Just imagine the delight of spending Valentines night discussing the council budget!!

The four hour extra planning meeting was mainly to discuss a specific wind farm application.  This is quite an emotive subject, raising questions about the possible environmental damage that might be done, and whether wind turbines are perceived a blot or a beauty on the landscape.  For me this issue is made worse by the often too biaised and inadequate information provided on both sides of the argument.  What a minefield, and not an easy decision for me to make.

I think it’s fair to say that thursday night’s ‘Valentine’ budget debate’s biggest concern was over the level of council tax increase to be imposed.  This is another issue which isn’t remotely easy to resolve – keep it low but then have to cut services or retain them but have to charge residents more?

I’ll leave it there for you all to ponder …

Les

And we’re off – again!

Boy, did I need that break over Christmas! 

Anyone else who runs their own business will know just how disciplined you must be to take time off.  For once I managed to pencil in two weeks when the office was closed which meant I could try and clear the decks a bit, both work and council, and have a few days off.

Back to the grindstone on the 7th, with council work kicking off proper at Tuesday evening’s  PACT meeting.  (These meetings are the ideal place to raise a community issue, with amongst others both councillors & community police present, but unfortunately they aren’t well attended.  Still trying to come up with a good ‘out of the box’ idea to get them to be ‘used’ more so any suggestions most welcome.)  A couple more meetings (plus casework) during the rest of the week but thankfully not too hectic a start for me.

Without taking on too much more I have booked myself on some of the governor training courses, and in this past week I’ve been to one on Finance & Budgets.  As it happens I got there about half way through as it overlapped with Equalities.  I think somebody must have been looking after me as I decided to stay at the meeting.  And when I got to the training they had almost finished going through a long spreadsheet looking at funding, line by line.  Now as an ex trainer even I concede that there’s not much you can do to make these exciting!  Fortunately the second hour was more general, and proactive, and what with the notes handed out I feel it was worthwhile going.

Last meeting for me this week was full council last night – shortest on record surely, finishing in well under an hour.  Home by 6pm which was just as well as spent the next couple of hours wading through and actioning e-mails.  After all that a can of lager never tasted so good!

Les

Year's End

This is my last instalment until the New Year.  And again I’ve slipped into four weeks worth …

Saturday 24th November I had a stand at the Green Fayre – as usual I’d left things to the last minute and was making stock any spare minute I had in the week leading up to it!  Annoyingly this clashed with the local Labour Party’s first Policy Conference.  Believe it or not I actually wanted to go to it but I’d booked & paid for the stand months before.  And as I’m sure I’ve said to some of you I believe you are no good as a councillor if you haven’t got a life, and this time ‘life’ came first.

December has been a slightly ‘gentler’ month what with Christmas on the horizon, (and this can make it all too easy to forget that for some people like the homeless it’s just another day).  Still had a smattering of meetings, like planning, Trustees (shortest meeting I’ve ever been to!) full council where we said ‘goodbye’ to Richard Parry, Director of Education, and former Chief Superintendent Mark Mathias, and a PACT meeting.  These are the ones where community police come to hear concerns raised by the public.  Although these are never that well attended by residents I still feel they are worthwhile even if only one person turns up.  Phone & e-mail are fine most of the time, but it’s great to see people face to face and hopefully help resolve an issue.

In the last week I visited TOPIC House & the Phoenix Centre to pass on seasons greetings, and also scoff a very naughty but nice fry-up in the café – strongly recommend going there as very reasonably priced and even the small breakfast is plenty.  Also went to Seaview School’s nativity play in St Nicholas Church.  I have an admission to make as I really don’t enjoy kids singing – usually too noisy and out of tune!  But you can’t beat these for enthusiasm, and the animals, ‘sheep’ especially’ were all very cute.

That’s it until January but as Arnie says ‘I’ll be back!’ (only not in that weird Austrian/American accent!!)

Les

The Long Fortnight

A busy and varied two weeks – mix of council, business including work for Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). 

Had a heavy start trying to resolve an ongoing issue in my role of school governor, but most of the rest of that week was spent either on FSB – Treasurer work for local & regional AGMs and monthly branch meeting – and other business ‘as usual’.

On the Saturday I attended the first Sparkle ‘Transgender and public integration day’ in the Brangwyn Hall, in part aimed at letting the public know more about the relevant issues. Over 25 stands were there, from advice & information to jewellery & makeup. It carried on into the evening with entertainment provided – some of you may remember the Swinging Blue Jeans who were practising as we were leaving.  From the quote from their website, here above right, it was obviously a very good start to what could be a long tradition of such events. 

Last week was back more in council mode with my regular monthly surgery, then meeting up with fellow councillor Nick Bradley to keep up with both cabinet news and issues affecting our ward. 
On Wednesday I attended community PACT ‘meeting’ – these are held by the police outside in various places across the ward, are often better than meetings in venues, and can also show that you are bothering to go out into your ward, willing to meet residents and listen to any issues they have. 
I went to WLGA Induction Training on Thursday : ‘The first 6 months …’.  As well as lots of useful tips, ideas & advice, I found I knew quite a bit.  But then it’s always helpful to get reassurance you are 'going int he right direction'.  
And finally full council preceded by a special meeting to award 7 former mayors as Aldermen/women.  These long standing councillors were from all walks of life, who no doubt would have had to handle the role of councillor & mayor at the same time as going to work and bringing up a family, and maybe even some hobbies.  Interesting, then, that one of our speakers at the morning’s induction gave the impression that when you become a councillor everything else goes out of the window.  There are times – oh, many MANY times! – when I feel I’m losing the ability to multitask to such a degree, but without all that variety of experience I truly believe that I’d make a very poor councillor indeed.

Les