Robs Weekly Round Up

10 November 2023

Dear colleagues,

Welcome back to those of you who enjoyed some time off after half term.

This week the Council has been marking the annual remembrance period in a number of ways. As always, I was very proud to be part of the service held at the Civic Offices on Thursday. I joined the Mayor of the Vale of Glamorgan Council, Cllr Julie Aviet, the Deputy Leader, Cllr Bronwen Brooks, political Group Leaders, veterans from all of our armed forces, and other dignitaries to lay wreathes and mark the two-minute silence.

As a further show of our support the Council installed a new memorial bench at Gladstone Gardens on Wednesday. The bench features a special commemorative design of white doves, to symbolise peace, and poppies which has been installed ahead of Remembrance Day. It’s the second such bench installed by our Neighbourhood Services team and is a fitting addition to the space opposite Barry’s memorial hall.

The Red Ensign and Royal British Legion Flag have also been raised outside Civic Offices and will continue to fly over the weekend, showing our support for Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday. A number of our buildings, including Penarth Pier will also be lit red until Sunday.

As well as the civic ceremonies and public shows of remembrance I know many staff show their respects and support the Poppy Appeal in other ways. Jenny Ringstead our Carer Support Officer got in touch this week to tell me how she used her staff volunteering day to spend time collecting for the appeal with her daughter. She emailed me earlier this week to say “just wanted to say thank you for giving staff one day paid volunteering.  I thoroughly enjoyed doing the poppy appeal with my daughter and with other members of our church last week.  I had a Friday off work to do the poppy selling and it was such a pleasure.”  Jenny has a strong family connection to the appeal and ended her message “what a wonderful thing to allow staff to have a day to volunteer and reflect on the importance of serving others.”

Thanks again Jenny for getting in touch. Your story really brought home to me the importance of remembrance and it is great to hear that our new volunteering policy and the support of your manager helped you do more to mark it with your family this year.

Observing the annual period of remembrance in something that really matters to many in our communities. It was also heartening to receive the “sincere thanks” of the Penarth Veterans Association. In a message on Facebook the group said “To the learners and staff from Stanwell school, you have done an amazing job. To our partners in the Vale of Glamorgan Council, Karen from Penarth Pier Pavilion and the Penarth Town Council.  The festival of remembrance is made better by your annual participation. Thank you.” The group also thanked Albert Road Primary School for their work on a Remembrance themed 'memory board'.

Diolch yn fawr iawn to everyone who has helped the Vale mark the week.

Another message of thanks to our staff that came in online this week sang the praises of the team at Cowbridge library. It perfectly sums up the service offered through the Vale’s community hubs: “I'd like to say thank you to the Cowbridge Library. I've spent several days there in the past two weeks sat doing paperwork for hours on the PCs and I want to say what a lovely environment it is and what a privilege these places are. I saw groups of ladies knitting, toddler groups, music groups, the local PCSO drop-in session, a lego group, and not to mention the fantastic range of books and facilities. This hub of activity is priceless and the staff are lovely. The amazing facilities and the staff, who were lovely, made a tough project a little easier.”

I would like to commend our colleagues at Cowbridge library and across the Vale’s libraries and community learning hubs for their phenomenal work. Praise like this shows just how valued a service you provide. Gwaith da pawb.

Hearing praise about our work is always encouraging but even more so when the subject is a service like our libraries that has been through such a significant transformation in how it operates in recent years. Many of you will I hope have already read the joint message I sent with the Leader earlier today addressing the increasingly challenging financial circumstances we find ourselves operating in. On Tuesday all chief officers took part in a session to consider what opportunities we have as a Council to continue to change how we operate in order to ensure this Council can continue to provide the services that matter to our residents and communities.

Thanks to all those colleagues who attended for making the time and to our OD and Learning team for hosting the session and ran it so efficiently. I was greatly encouraged by the ideas that were shared and the sense of enthusiasm in the room for change and new ways of working. In some areas we will need to move quickly in order to achieve the levels of savings that are required. Where this is the case we’ll keep all staff updated and offer regular opportunities for colleagues to shape this work.  

This week has also seen us celebrate two of the many and varied professions that make up our authority. Wednesday was World Town Planning Day. I started my career in local government as a planner and so this is always an area of work that is close to my heart. The day is celebrated by the Royal Town Planning Institute. This year’s theme is the welfare of planners, the impact of misinformation and misconceptions about their work, and social media abuse. That these are issues of such importance gave me pause to reflect on how much the role of a planner, and life in the public sector in general, has changed since I joined the profession and the Institute way back!.

Planners play a hugely important role in determining how our communities and infrastructure operate and function. It is a significant area of our Council’s work and one that goes far beyond the consideration of planning applications and the decisions of planning committee. Their work is a major driver of economic prosperity and improvements in citizens’ health and wellbeing. The work shapes the places in which we live, work and spend our leisure time.  I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all of those colleagues in our organisation, both the planners and all of those in other roles who work towards the same ends. Diolch yn fawr pawb. You can find out more about their work at https://www.planningyourworld.org.uk/.

This week is also OT week. Led by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, OT Week is designed to help raise awareness of OTs and the important work that they do. This is another area of our work that may not immediately spring to mind when people think of Council services but we have a number of OTs working within the Vale. Mostly employed in Social Services our OTs support large numbers of people by making assessments for disabled people of all ages and then providing advice and support that helps individuals to enjoy as much independence as possible in their own home. This is hugely important work, that is truly life changing for many who receive their support. On behalf of all of those whose lives they have improved I’d like to thank our OTs for their excellent work. You can learn more about the service and how citizens are referred for support on our website.

Finally, and reflecting on the dreadful weather conditions over the last 24 hours, I’d also like to mention our colleagues within Neighbourhood Services who responded so quickly to areas of localised highway flooding following significant rainfall on Thursday. I know they responded quickly across many areas of the Vale – thank you.  Diolch.

As always, thanks to everyone for your efforts this week. Enjoy a restful and relaxing weekend.

Rob.