30 April, 2021

Dear Colleagues,

I hope this message finds you well at the end of what has been another busy week. In this week’s message I’d like to highlight a few areas of our work whilst giving ‘kudos’ as always to some of the teams involved. 

Firstly, this week is Lesbian Visibility Week, which we have been supporting through our social media channels. It’s important for us as an employer and as a public organisation, to champion issues that bring our values of being open, ambitious, working together and being proud of our work, to life. I’m pleased that we have an LGBT+ colleagues and allies’ network, GLAM, to drive this agenda forward. I’m also watching with interest  to see how the Ethnic Minority Network will take shape in the near future and I was pleased to hear their recent launch meeting went well. 

Our Healthy Living Team have also displayed our values through their work recently. During lockdown, they have had to think of creative ways to support the wellbeing of their service users. Recently, a group of service users decided to take on the challenge of walking the distance of the Great Wall of China, logging their miles virtually. Now that restrictions are beginning to ease, they’ve also been able to support small group walks throughout the Vale as well. Some of the feedback from this group has been very positive. I know the Healthy Living Team have also played an important role in supporting, and funding, some of the virtual physical activity sessions that we’ve been able to offer staff through our Your Wellbeing / Eich Iechyd programme. For that and all your efforts, I’d like to thank you all very much – diolch yn fawr iawn i chi i gyd. 

Our waste teams have also been recognised recently for their outstanding work in supporting our residents to be able to consistently recycle over 70% of the household waste that we collect and this figure continues to grow year on year. The BBC came to see how this operation works and also visited the waste transfer station in Cowbridge where our recycling gets sorted before being shipped to various plants across the UK to be recycled. I look forward to seeing the final piece on the BBC website shortly. In the meantime, I’d like to thank Colin Smith, all of his supervisors and frontline staff for their excellent work over the past 18 months. The transition to kerbside separated recycling hasn’t been easy at times but it has certainly been worth it. 

One of the most highly visible parts of our work as a Council is in the impressive development of new schools. I’m looking forward to seeing how Whitmore High School staff and pupils get on next week, moving into their brand new £30.5 million school building. I’d like to wish you all the best of luck with the transition and hope you enjoy the new facilities. 

Linked to this, I’d like to congratulate the 21st Century Schools Team, AECOM, ISG Construction, Morgan Sindall Construction & Bouygues UK Construction for their GO Award. Their Community Benefits project was won in the category of Best Procurement Delivery. The teams involved have all collaborated across the Barry Secondary Learning Communities and Western Vale Primaries projects to provide work experience opportunities, use local supply chains across their projects and ensure wider community benefits are delivered alongside the regeneration of our schools estate. Well done to all involved, very deserving winners and this award goes to show the very real difference our work makes right across the Vale of Glamorgan. 

Finally, I would like to wish Debbie, Vicky, Gareth, their electoral registration team and all staff involved with the election next week the best of luck. I know it has been extremely challenging arranging everything under exceptional circumstances and I hope all goes well next week. 

These are just a few examples of how #TeamVale have worked together recently to demonstrate our values and I’m incredibly proud of all of your work. 

I hope you enjoy the bank holiday weekend. Take care and stay safe.

Diolch yn fawr,

Rob.