Swansea
Leader Issue 96
March 2015 inside
Newspaper of the City and County of Swansea
your city: your paper
City centre Regeneration plans praised by developers plus
page 7
Air show • FAMILY WAY: Ryan and Andrea Smith spend their Wednesday afternoons working together in school with the support of the council’s family learning service. Find out more on page 11. Picture by Jason Rogers
SWANSEA Council is set to spend millions of pounds a week supporting local communities, giving relative prioritisation to schools and social care. The council will be spending around £1.5m a day across all services including services aimed at protecting the vulnerable, supporting pupil attainment and tackling poverty to promote a sustainable local economy and communities. More than £135m will be spent in our schools, £104m on social care as well as £52.5m on services like libraries, leisure centres, parks, streets and toilets. On top of that millions of pounds more have been earmarked for council house improvements and new school building. As significant as these sums are, it remains the case that overall spending on Directorate Services has reduced by over £10m compared to
we asked, you said
We’re targeting millions to the frontline priorities CONSULTATION on the Sustainable Swansea – Fit for the Future programme and specific budget proposals took place over four months and included 10 staff roadshows, 15 community conversations and five ‘pop-up’ events in Swansea Market, supermarkets and the Civic Centre. Thousands of consultation booklets were distributed to more than 60 libraries, leisure centres and community centres. A social media and web-based campaign attracted thousands of hits, likes, retweets and comments. There was also a ‘Big Conversation’ for young people, meetings with trade unions and feedback from schools. Details of consultation responses can be found at www.swansea.gov.uk/democracy - click on ‘agendas’, ‘council’ and then the meeting of February 24. There’s also more on pages 4 and 5.
the current financial year and this level of reduction is set to continue. Dean Taylor, Corporate Services Director, said that the council was striving to be smarter, leaner and more efficient as it looks to save at least £81m from its budget over the next three years. He said as much of the annual budget as possible is being spent on the front line priorities identified by
the people of Swansea. He said: “We’ve been continuing the conversation about the council’s Sustainable Swansea – Fit for the Future programme with residents, local groups and organisations, as well as our staff, over the last few months. “We asked people for their views, they told us what they thought and the council has responded to their
ideas and suggestions.” Proposals which changed as a result of two rounds of consultation over four months included a decision not to introduce residents parking charges. Feedback has also prompted a decision to develop wider reviews into areas like adult social care, waste collection, public toilets and car parking arrangements. The council has already cut management costs by millions of pounds over the last few years, including reducing the number of directors and heads of service by a third. The council is also streamlining administrative services, introducing smarter ways of working and reducing overheads by investing in more digital technology. It is also looking to sell assets, including buildings it no longer needs, to invest the proceeds of sales to support frontline services as well as to reduce costs further.
High-flyers are back in city this summer page 3
Wild side Get our free app to guide you on Gower page 9
Recycling rewards are up for grabs page 11