01 April 2021

Dear Colleagues, 

I hope you are all well and have had a chance to enjoy some of the warmer weather we’ve had this week.  

As we approach the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, I wanted to dedicate this message to all our frontline workers who will continue to work throughout the bank holiday to keep our vital services running. 

To name a few, our Neighbourhood Services colleagues will continue to work to ensure our parks and resorts are clean and tidy for all to enjoy and our waste and recycling crews will work on Friday and Monday to ensure there are no delays to collections.  In Social Services, our colleagues will continue to care for our vulnerable residents.  In our libraries,  staff will work over the weekend continuing to offer remote events as well as click and collect services.  And we cannot  forget our Joint Enforcement Teams who will be patrolling resorts to ensure safe parking and social distancing measures are observed, as well as ensuring businesses are operating as they should be under the current restrictions. This is not an exhaustive list but gives some insight into the teams and services that continue to operate to keep our residents and communities safe.  

I’m saddened to report that the nice weather has brought some unfortunate behaviour along with it. Yesterday we reported that some park benches in our Country Parks have been damaged by BBQs and fires. There have also been a number of reports of antisocial behaviour and breaches of the Public Spaces Protection Orders that prohibit the consumption of alcohol at a number of our resorts. And pictures have been shared of litter being left behind on Barry Island and many of our parks, despite the hundreds of bins provided, as well as wheelie bins, that our teams empty throughout the day.  

I was, however, pleased to receive an email from a member of staff who walked along the beach early on Wednesday morning and reported not only our resort team litter picking along the beach but other members of staff as well who happened to be out walking or who made a special visit to the beach to support the teams. I am very grateful to all of you for taking the time to ensure our beaches remain clean and tidy.  

I know a number of our staff are extremely proud to work for the Vale of Glamorgan Council and are local residents who take pride in our communities as well. I appreciate you acting as role models and ambassadors for our organisation and I hope that others follow your example.  

As well as our front line services, we are also indebted to our back-office teams that are vital in keeping all our services running and on this note I’m also pleased to share a message of praise I received this week for the ICT department. One colleague wrote,  

‘The ICT Department have done an absolutely sterling job throughout the pandemic.  They really have gone to exceptional lengths to mobilise the whole workforce under really difficult and unprecedented circumstances over the last year and I would like to thank them for all their efforts.

‘I know they have been working around the clock to ensure delivery of their service which, without this support, other services would have suffered and the impact to staff and the wider public would have been huge.  I just thought they deserved a mention as we do focus quite rightly on the very important work of the front-line services but sometimes the back-office services need a little cheer too.’ 

Thank you, Rachael for taking the time to shout out your colleagues, and to our ICT department for your continued efforts to keep us all working!  

I want to close by referring again to the Staff Wellbeing Survey which will remain open until 23 April to ensure as many of you as possible can respond. This will inform some of our recovery planning as well as future wellbeing work so please do take just a few minutes to have your say, if you haven’t already. Several hundred colleagues have already responded and it would be great to add to that figure. 

I hope you all enjoy your bank holiday weekends or any time off you have planned over the Easter break. Take care and stay safe. 

Diolch yn fawr, 
Rob.