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Rocke · Joined: 08 May 2008 Posts: 795 Location: Abertillery

Definitely time to put the kettle on.
Let's see if I can finish this within 2 hours ( just to warn you ) !

Actually, I've decided to split this up, since it naturally falls into 3 bits.

What I call my big week of meetings - Ed & Leisure on the Tuesday, Housing & Regen on Weds and Env & Public Protection on Thurs.
The first 2 are almost always political battles whereas the 'E & P' team of us councillors tend to focus on the actual issues, not the political aspect of them.
Eg. In Regen you get the 'straying animals, coupled with street lighting switch, risk to the public, should have used our alternative budget rather than risk life and limb' etc. just like Cllr. McCarthy's letter in this week's Gazette. In E & P we talk about what our straying animals contractor has done and is doing and concentrate on problems with fences etc - nowt much about blaming the other side.

Anyway, Tuesday's meeting.
12 items on the Agenda and a few are going to produce vigorous debate.

A few Estyn inspections and an excellent report on St Mary's RC school.
The Head is there to have the deserved praise heaped on him and his staff.
Blaentillery school also had a good report. There's not that many pupils there and as such there's fewer staff and helpers. Nevertheless the gradings are good ( Estyn grade in 7 areas, such as Management, Teaching, how pupils well learn/behave etc. ) and the recommendations ( there's always recommendations ! ) are more suggestions than 'improve this' or 'try that'. Our schools support officers will ensure that the head and staff get any additiuonal help and resources in that respect. Another letter of thanks and congratulations being sent to one of our schools.

Some schools do unfortunately give rise to Inspectors' concerns and in the more serious cases they are put into Special Measures. This means Estyn require an action plan from the Local Authority on how it proposes to improve things and it keeps an eye on things - 6-monthly mini-inspections and the like. It generally takes 18 months of improvement to convince Estyn that things are on the right track and likely to continue so. In this case we've put extra Governors in to bolster support for the governance ( runing ) of the school. One action is that the school ( don't forget, Governors in the main run a school ) has created a sub-committee to tackle the issue.That has got bogged down and Members were unhappy at meetings of that sub-committe being cancelled due to various issues of unavailability of the key personnel, Head, other Governors etc.
The Ed & Leis committee has now asked for the Minutes of the school's sub-committee to be on our agenda every session and any actions done or required. We ( all Members ) intend to keep on top of this.

To change the theme we then had a few Leisure-related items.
The detached youth scheme has connected with over 1,000 young people in just a short time which is good news and there seems to be something really positive happening. Someone mentioned that an area somewhere that was plagues with youngsters hanging around the street corner was now much better.

Another item ( which Cllr Abbott, Chair, and I thought useful to look at ) was our larger summer events and how they had fared. We ( as a partnership between councillors and officers ) are keen that the established events flourish because they put the area on the map.
Aber Blues broke even, which is exactly how it should be ( make a profit and we could have given better value to patrons, make a loss beyond reasonable subsidy and we're wasting public money ). Apparently the camping had very good feedback so hopefully next year's will start the faster acceleration I'd like to see. I'd like our Blues to be patronised by a few thousand within 2-3 years and Aber teeming with Blues goers.
One thing that has got Blaenau Gwent firmly on the national and international map is the Bryn Bach Triathlon. Exposure in the sport's magazine and on worldwide TV, being shown on Eurosport.
Our Sports Personality Awards was anortrher highly successful event, with sports personalities such as Jamie Baulch giving an inspirational speech.

At this point we started divulging into the Eisteddfod. Some members are convinced that it will put back The Works development ( some days ) and on others they seem to feel that it would be better later, when we coudl show off all that's there. ( Where would we hold a 120-acre event then though ? ).

Back to school and it was a presentation on Child Protection issues and how schools play a vital role. A Member had previously expressed concerns regarding how schools could ensure that referrals to Social Services were followed through. Won't bore you with the nitty gritty but
we heard how schools were invited to case conferences and other mechanisms by which potential problems suffered by young people can be picked up on.

Last we had a report on spending on schools throughout the Borough over the past 9 years or so. A member had asked just for the Ebbw Fach valley ( he's a Labour heavyweight, so I wonder why ? ) but we thought that Members should have all the facts. I had to leave at this point due to work commitments ( yep, the meeting had already lasted 2 1/2 hours ) so I'm not sure how much politicking there was.
I have of course read the report and Nantyglo Comp ( repairs cost anything between 3.5 and £7,000,000 depending on who you talk to/ how you ask the question/ what season of the year it is ) has had guess how much spent - £160,000-odd.
No, not a mistype - just one hundred and sixty-odd thousand pounds.

Time for the tea then.

Part 2, Housing & Regen sometime over the weekend ( more like Rocke v Labour it felt ).

Cheers.

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Rocke