Robs Weekly Round Up

06 October 2023

Dear colleagues,

Together with the Leader of the Council I wrote to all colleagues yesterday to outline the Council’s current financial position and the work that is underway to prepare our budget for the next financial year. In the context of those challenges this week has been one that has given me real optimism for the future.

The week began earlier than usual with the very welcome announcement on Sunday afternoon of £20m of funding for Barry as part of the UK Government Towns Fund. Along with the Leader and other colleagues I then had an initial meeting with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on Monday morning. The officials who attended were able to provide us with information on the scheme. The money has been provided to help us work with other local partners to focus on town centre regeneration in Barry over the next ten years. Although we are still awaiting more detail it appears that the investment will allow us to expand our intended placemaking plan for Barry.

A sum of this size has the potential to enable something truly transformative for the Vale’s largest town. We have an excellent track record of delivering effective place based regeneration schemes in recent years. The transformation of Barry Island promenade, the facelifting programme for Upper Holton Rd, and the Pumphouse and Goodsheds developments at the Waterfront, have changed the look and feel of key locations in Barry. Taking what we have learned from this work, as well as the projects delivered in the Western Vale by our former Creative Rural Communities team, into projects in the centre of Barry will stand us in good stead.

With this funding due to be available from next year and news expected in the next few months on our bid for another pot of UK Government funding to develop a marina and watersports centre for the town, I am very excited to see what we can deliver next for Barry.

Working with communities to identify priorities for investment is central to our approach to regeneration and I know colleagues in our Place teams look forward to working with local businesses and the wider community to explore our options in the near future. In this same spirit I joined colleagues in our Policy and Participation teams and the Vale Youth Service in facilitating a Climate Conversation with dozens of children and young people at Barry Memo on Wednesday. 

Co-designed by young people the climate change engagement event brought together young people and decision makers from across the Vale to discuss their experiences of climate action, their ambitions for the future and how we can help them achieve this. Our Youth Council played an important role in planning the event too and helped identify the two main topics of discussion: waste (recycling and food) and transport.

The event certainly gave me a better understanding of young people’s concerns about climate change. The feedback we’ve had so far from those who attended is that they were pleased to hear we are doing so much in this area and that the question and answer sessions helped bust a few myths. You can see some highlights of the day on our social media feeds. Diolch yn fawr to everyone who attended and shared their views, and in particular to our colleagues that made it happen. The voice of young people is one that must be heard as we develop our plans for the future.

I am afraid I also have some sad news to share this week. Kevin Hartery, a long serving and very popular colleague in our Neighbourhood Services team, passed away last month. Kevin had worked for the Council since August 1979. Most recently he had worked as Construction Operative in our Highways Maintenance team. Kevin had sadly been away from work for some time and he is greatly missed by colleagues in Environment and Housing. His years of service show Kevin to have been a true public servant and I’d also like to give my deepest sympathies to those affected by his death.    

I wrote last week about the online Question Time session with our staff network leads – Lee, Carl, Laura, and Colin - and Director of Corporate Resources Tom Bowring on Tuesday. The session was very well attended. I know that all who joined the session enjoyed hearing more about colleagues who are doing such inspiring work and what motivated them to get involved. If you were unable to join but would like to learn a little more the session will be available to watch in iDev shortly. I’d like to thank our network leads for being so open during the session, and to all of you who took the time to listen and learn.

Sharing our experiences and learning is one of the ways through which we will find new and more effective ways to work. To help us all to do this our OD and Training team are relaunching the Learning Café on Monday. More information about the new initiative will be released through the week.

The primary purpose of the network is to create a fun, dynamic and inclusive environment that brings people together from across the organisation to collaborate, share ideas, ask questions, and support each other’s development. It is open to all staff including those who work in our schools.

As sponsor it would be great to see as many of you as possible at these sessions.  Given the need for us all to continually think about the way in which services are delivered, the value of taking time out to learn and develop and to share thoughts and ideas with colleagues is invaluable and should not be overlooked.  Thank you to Natalie Jones, Organisational Development and Learning Assistant for her work on the network.  Diolch Natalie.

Keep your eyes peeled for emails throughout the week for information on how you can get involved and join us on this journey. Next week I’ll be highlighting the other new elements of the Learning Café including the 8 new themes and a new approach to learning emails in the organisation.

In the context of new ideas, an excellent example of an effective project was shared with me at the beginning of the week when the Council took delivery of our new ceremonies brochure in both digital and hard copy format. The brochure has been designed to complement our website and the sustainably printed 1000 hard copies will be particularly useful to our ceremonies team at wedding fayres and other events. The print cost has been entirely covered by the fees paid by advertisers, so the brochure has been produced at no cost to the authority.  Well done to Rachel Protheroe and the team who have worked on this and been able to deliver a highly professional product which will stand the team in good stead going forward. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

I’d also like to share some news that has just reached us as I write this message.  We have just discovered that the Vale of Glamorgan has been successful in becoming a member of the WHO Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities. As a member, Vale of Glamorgan will be part of a growing global movement of communities, cities and other sub-national levels of government that are striving to better meet the needs of their older residents.

I’d like to thank Sian Clemett-Davies for her tireless work as our Age Friendly Vale officer and all those colleagues and partners who have supported the work to get us this far. Diolch i chi i gyd.

Finally, I’d like to remind all colleagues that flu vaccinations are still available to book via our Occupational Health team. Jabs are available to all staff. Those with a chronic health condition, pregnant women, carers, and those likely to have close contacts with an immunocompromised person are all recommended to get immunized.

Thanks as always to all colleagues for their hard work this week. Diolch yn fawr iawn

Rob.