To provide an opportunity for Councillors to ask questions to the Leader of the Council in accordance with the Council’s Standing Orders.
Process:
No more than 15 minutes will be allocated at the Council meeting for questions to the Leader of the Council.
The question must be addressed through the Mayor or the person presiding at the meeting and not directly to the person being questioned.
Minutes:
Before commencement with questions, the Leader made the following announcements:
Opening of the new bridge
Last week the Leader was joined by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Lee Waters MS, and the Mayor, to officially open the new city centre active travel bridge.
The bridge replaced the old subway and provided residents and visitors with a safer, more accessible route across the railway line. It connected communities and the city centre, something residents were clear they wanted in responding to the active travel consultations.
It was a complex project led by Newport City Council in partnership with Welsh Government, Network Rail and Transport for Wales. The bridge was delivered on-site by contractors and sub-contractors that were all Welsh based companies, directly benefitting the local economy and communities.
The building of this bridge was yet another step forward in delivering wider regeneration plans for the city centre and greatly improved the public realm around this important transportation hub, making the area far more attractive for all users. The planting beds were sustainable thanks to a drainage system that captured and directed water straight to them.
Marathon
Newport City Council was pleased to welcome thousands of runners and spectators to the city just over a week ago for the ABP Newport Wales marathon and 10k. The weather wasn’t the finest on the day, but it proved to be perfect for competitors with three new course records set.
Newport was on the small screen again when the race and highlights were televised last Friday. Well done to everyone who took part, to all the local volunteers and those that worked very hard to make the event a success.
Coronation
The Coronation weekend was fast approaching and so were the plans for community events. The highlight this year was the Big Lunch at Beechwood Park, taking place on Sunday 7 May from 12 noon to 4pm.
With support from Newport City Radio, the Beechwood Park Group and Newport Live, there would be live music, roaming entertainers, sporting, and craft activities for all the family.
The Leader was also pleased to announce that the Council would be able support street parties again this year. Applications were being processed and those successful would be supported with traffic management on the day.
More information about all the Coronation events was available on our website.
Wales National Armed Forces Day
After the coronation, the next major event was Wales National Armed Forces Day.
The Leader was proud to announce that Newport was hosting this year’s event on Saturday 24 June with an actioned-packed schedule in place.
The day would begin at 10am with military displays along the riverside and organisations such as the Royal British Legion, the Royal Naval Association, Help for Heroes, Newport Veterans Hub, GAVO and many more, with stalls inside the theatre and arts centre.
There would be a parade in the city centre led by the Regimental Band and Corps of Drums of The Royal Welsh, and the Tigers Army Parachute Display Team would “drop in” somewhere in the city centre.
City centre activities would finish at 3pm but there would be a free, ticketed concert in Rodney Parade from 4pm to 6pm.
The Leader welcomed colleagues support for this prestigious day when the council, its communities, and people from further afield could show their gratitude to all those serving in the armed forces and veterans. Council colleagues would look forward to service people, veterans, residents, and visitors joining them on this prestigious occasion.
For more information and the latest announcements, the Leader suggested keeping an eye on the Council’s website and social media.
Cost of living event and School poverty
On Wednesday 26 April, the Council would be hosting another cost-of-living event to offer support to Newport residents.
Taking place at The Riverfront Theatre and Arts Centre, members of the public could drop in any time between 10am and 6pm.
Hundreds of local people attended a similar event last November. The Council had again joined forces with organisations including Newport Citizens Advice, Age Cymru Gwent, Melin Homes, Newport Credit Union, Wastesavers and Aneurin Bevan University Health Board.
The event would be welcoming, inclusive and informal. People could pop in to have a chat with someone or just have a look around, and there would be free tea, coffee, and children’s activities on offer.
In the same vein, the Council was also working with schools to make a difference to the lives of children from low-income households.
A new strategy was recently launched to provide bespoke, targeted, and universal approaches to tackling all aspects of poverty that impacted on children and their families.
The strategy was aimed at removing the barriers that could impact on a child’s education. All schools received a presentation by Children in Wales about taking a whole school approach, and by working with a range of partners, there would be a wide offer of advice and support available for schools, pupils, and families.
The Leader had the privilege of attending St Julian’s Primary School last week, where the children introduced the Leader to the Big Box Void. This was a mini supermarket, housed in a shipping container on the school site. The container and electrical white goods were provided by WG. Other schools in Newport had also signed up to this initiative. There were two aims for this initiative; to reduce food waste and to make food affordable for the community. It was stocked through donations from staff and family and other donations from the local shops. I was also supported and stocked by crops grown in the poly tunnels, which meant that children participated in the activities. The Leader passed on her thanks to Councillors D Davies and M Spencer for their involvement. The shop also stocked, nappies, toothpaste, sanitary products and other household items and it was a pay as you feel shop. There was a tremendous community effort from St Julian’s Primary School and the Leader was proud of the effort that all schools were making in Newport.
Library, Museum and Art Gallery reopening
Since the last meeting of Council, the Newport Library, Museum and Art Gallery building in John Frost Square reopened after a major programme of Welsh-government funding work to create space for additional council teams.
Residents could now access a range of services in the heart of the city centre.
Making much better use of a council-owned building, the scheme included new office space; rooms where appointments with residents could take place and a much brighter and welcoming foyer.
Work was also underway on some unique artwork within the building. Urban Circle was successful in obtaining funding for the project which the Leader was looking forward to this artwork being unveiled very soon.
Questions to the Leader
Councillor M Evans:
One in seven people in Wales were employed by the Tourism Industry, which included thousands of Newportonians. Was the Leader therefore opposed or in favour of the Welsh Government’s introduction of the Tourism Tax and could the Leader explain the reasons why.
Response:
The Leader felt that tourism was important an important aspect of the Welsh economy and hospitality was part of tourism. Newport had a great deal on offer, and we also supported the development of more bed spaces; there was the International Conventional Centre. We also had our heritage assets including the Transporter Bridge and Caerleon; our Roman History was second to none. In terms of tourism tax, which would be left to the discretion of each individual Local Authorities to consider, which was a key point as it enables the 22 Welsh Local Authorities to review this on a case-by-case basis. When it came to the concept of introducing a Tourism Tax, it was a matter for full council to debate.
Supplementary:
Other Councils in Wales have given their stance publicly on Tourism Tax, why have we not as yet.
Response:
The Leader would not give a statement until she had undertaken a full analysis of all the supporting evidence, including the financial information around this. The Leader did however, emphasized the excellent support shown by the Business Support Team for all businesses across Newport. Working with major businesses, small businesses, and SMEs. It was important to recognize that this council supported businesses. This was shown through the discretionary element for business rates along with the rebate from the WG. The information on the subject that Councillor Evans raised would need to be evidence based.
Councillor Morris:
Was the only way to make an appointment for the tip was by an online appointment.
Response:
The Leader advised that this was not the only way and that residents could also make the appointment face to face. Residents could go into the library museum and hubs to obtain the information.
Councillor Hourahine:
In January there were two days of public engagement in Newport, during the budgeting process. Did the Leader consider there to be any benefit to adopting such an approach for the distribution of funding.
Response:
Many councillors would be aware of the participatory budgeting work that the Council led over the last few years and the Leader thanked councillor colleagues for work done in terms of highlighting and endorsing applications made by residents.
This was a partnership arrangement with ABUHB and OneNewport Partnership. This was a way to enable communities to access resources that were not directed by the Council. This
started this around the start of the pandemic. Colleagues would recall that at the end of the pandemic the Council introduced £0.5M of covid community recovery scheme distributed by participatory budgeting scheme. This year, the program aims was building stronger more resilient communities, improving people’s health and wellbeing, addressing inequality, tackling climate change emergency, and making Newport a better place to live. Four programmes had been completed in participatory budgeting and the evidence had suggested this was a very good way of allocating funds. Partner organisations had also provided additional funds. This was an important way of enabling participation, it was also about citizens deciding where the public money went and helped to engage partners and community representatives to get involved. The Leader recently attended the Newport Women’s Forum where success stories were highlighted. There was also project work taking place in Pill with some of the successful recipients of this funding. Not only was it an effective way of distributing funding, but it also helped to build social capitol and make communities stronger and increases trust in funding organisations and amongst community groups. This had been popular and well over 1,000 people had taken part in these sessions and the Leader was proud of the Partnerships Team, who led the way with this and was an exemplar for the distribution of funding across the whole of Wales and the UK.