Robs Weekly Round-Up

19 August 2022

Dear colleagues,

I would like to start this week by saying congratulations to sixth form students from across the Vale of Glamorgan who are celebrating another impressive set of A and AS Level results.

This will have been an anxious week for many, not just for pupils but also for parents and other family members. It will also have been emotional I am sure for many colleagues in our schools and those teams across the Council that help young people achieve.  A big thank you to all our staff and colleagues that helped make it happen. Your support is invaluable in helping our young people fulfil their potential. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

The Summer of Fun programme is also getting top marks at the moment. The programme offers children, young people and families free access to a range of sports, play, arts and cultural activities. Thousands have taken part already this summer and feedback so far has been great. One of the highlights this week was the Flying Start Fun Day in Barry. There was a huge turnout at Pencoedtre fields and a real buzz in the air with lots of happy children enjoying activities like face painting and a climbing wall for free. I’d like to thank all of those that helped organise the event, as well as everyone working from different departments and teams across the Council to make the wider programme such a success.

Amongst the dozens of stalls from Council teams were our Policy and Business Transformation team who spent the day speaking to residents about what we need to focus on for the future. This work will inform our Annual Delivery Plan for 2023/24. We are asking what we should make our commitments for the year. To do this we look at what went well and what could be done differently. As part of this an excellent summary document and series of videos have been produced. These do a great job of highlighting just what was achieved in 2021/22 and are well worth a look.

I mentioned in a message earlier this month that we were soon to begin speaking to residents and other stakeholders about another important issue – future improvements to Penarth Seafront. This work is now underway and we are getting lots of great suggestion online and via suggestion boards that are in place at the Pier Pavilion. If you are passing this weekend please do drop by and share your ideas, or tell us what you think online.

The Pavilion is always busy and was even more so yesterday with the visit of Welsh Government Minister for Finance and Local Government, Rebecca Evans. The Minister joined colleagues from Learning and Skills and Big Fresh Catering as well as the Leader of the Council, Cllr Lis Burnett, and Cabinet Member for Education, Arts and the Welsh Language, Cllr Rhiannon Birch. The Minister and Welsh Government aides were in Penarth to visit the innovative Makerspace centre at the Library and hear about the business model behind Big Fresh. Just another example of our work attracting the attention of those on the national stage.

Anyone out and about at the other end of the Vale will be able to see the new Windmill Lane play area in Llantwit Major. This is the latest in a long list of play areas in the Vale to be given a new lease on life after a major investment from the Council. The new facilities are suitable for children of various ages, ranging from toddlers to 12-year-olds and new trees will be planted shortly to complete the transformation. Thanks to all who are working to improve our play spaces.

Finally, with a at least a few more weeks of the summer remaining can I suggest any teams looking for a different meeting venue take a lead from the ICT and Data team in Learning and Skills who had a walking meeting this month along the heritage coast. It’s great to see teams finding ways to put their wellbeing at the heart of their work, and in true Team Vale style they even undertook their own littler pick along the way. Da iawn pawb.

As always thanks for all your hard work this week. Have a great weekend.

Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Rob.