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:
Homewards
· Last month, we announced that Newport is one of six flagship locations across the UK which will be working with the Royal Foundation’s Homewards programme to end homelessness.
· The five-year, locally-led programme aims to demonstrate that through partnership working, it is possible to end homelessness, making it rare, brief, and unrepeated.
· Homewards will support local partners to form and grow locally led coalitions of committed individuals, organisations, and businesses who will work together to create and deliver a tailored plan to prevent homelessness in their areas – based on local needs and local expertise.
· At the end of the five-year programme, the aim is for the towns and cities involved to be on a path to ending homelessness for good and to create a tried and tested model that can be scaled across the UK and beyond.
· As part of the launch, His Royal Highness Prince William visited Maindee Primary School and Linc Cymru’s Hill Street development.
· We were honoured to welcome Prince William to Newport, to hear first-hand accounts from tenants about the difference that the support and housing available at Hill Street has made to them.
· We have a clear commitment in Newport to transform services and end homelessness. This is already demonstrated by excellent local partnership working, and harnessing the opportunities that the Homewards programme is offering, gives us the chance to take this work to another level.
· Homelessness is not simply a housing issue. We need partners from across all sectors to work together to deliver real change, and we believe that the Homewards programme will help to accelerate this change and in preventing homelessness.
Events
Wales National Armed Forces Day
· Last month, I was filled with pride to see Newport host this year’s Wales National Armed Forces Day event. It was great to see so many people out in the city centre to join in with the celebrations for everything that our armed forces do, and to show our gratitude to service personnel and veterans.
· HMS Severn, Newport’s affiliated Ship was also welcomed back to Newport and was available for members of the public to visit.
· There were so many engaging activities and displays that took place, from the military parade to start the day, the Red Arrows flypast, to the concert at Rodney Parade, and it was great to see such a buzz about the city throughout the day’s proceedings.
· Large scale events such as Armed Forces Day help showcase the city to a wider audience, and I’d therefore like to express my utmost thanks to everyone who helped organise the day and for making it such a special occasion. The Leader added that the cross-party support was tremendous and thanked Councillor Evans who was in attendance for events throughout the day as well as colleagues from other political parties.
· I was also honoured to be able to re-sign the Armed Forces Covenant on behalf of the Council. The Council is a proud signatory of the Covenant, and it was an honour to be able to reaffirm our pledge to treat those who serve or have served in the armed forces, and their families, with fairness and respect.
· Thanks to Tracey Brookes, the Head of Regeneration and Economic Development, Joanne Parcell, Destination Development Officer - Events and Sonny Hawkins, Destination Development Officer. The Leader also thanked officers who turned up on the day to help and support.
· Another event I had the pleasure of attending last month, was the third annual Clean Air Day event.
· This year, the event was held at Jubilee Park Primary School, where pupils from Jubilee Park, High Cross, Mount Pleasant, Pentrepoeth, Rogerstone and Bassaleg schools joined together to learn about air quality, why it is important, and what we can do to help reduce air pollution.
· The pupils explored the air quality around the school through a number of fun activities, with help from air quality experts, and through demonstrations of air quality-related technology.
· Clean Air Day is an important campaign which encourages us to take time to reflect and think about what we can do in our own lives to help tackle poor air quality.
· Supporting nationwide campaigns such as this will help us to raise greater awareness of the issues around air quality. It is particularly important to engage young people as much as possible, and the event certainly did that.
· Hopefully they can help spread the message and encourage their family and friends to get involved however they can!
Awards
Finally, I’m pleased to be able to report on some recent awards for some of our services.
Youth and play service.
· Our youth and play service were recently rewarded for the work that they do with young people in the city, receiving the Education Workforce Council’s Bronze Quality Mark for youth services in Wales.
· The team works with children and young people, aged from 5 to 25, by supporting their wellbeing and advising on options for their future after the age of 16.
· They also work hard to prevent youth homelessness and are also available for young people to talk to a trusted adult with a listening ear.
Social Services
· Two of our services were recognised at this year’s Social Care Wales Accolades.
· Our Oaklands short break service won the Building Bright Futures for Children and Families award, for their work providing short-term breaks for children with additional needs, while our Community Connector service was highly commended in the supporting unpaid carers category, for its work providing advice, information, and assistance to our city’s unpaid carers.
Green Flag awards
· Finally, I’m pleased to report that it was announced earlier today that Belle Vue Park, Beechwood Park, and the Gwent Crematorium have retained their Green Flag status for 2023/24. In Belle Vue Park’s case, this will be the sixteenth year in a row it has retained Green Flag status.
· These awards are all a reflection of the hard work and dedication of our officers, and their commitment to serving the people of Newport. Congratulations to the four community sites, Bishton Village Pond, Lliswerry Pond, the Glade Community Garden and Laundry Gardens that were also recognised with a Green Flag Status. The Leader thanked the volunteers for all these sites.
· On a final point it was important that Newport was committed to its climate change action plan to protect and preserve the environment for future generations. The Leader recently met Youth Climate Ambassadors for Wales (YCA Wales) which was an apolitical group of 15 young climate activists from across Wales who campaigned to raise awareness of different issues. Their current campaign is to raise awareness on the impact of climate change on refugees. This is a youth-led organisation that aims to amplify young and unrecognised voices. Climate change is a complicated issue that matters both at grass roots level and on the international stage. The organisation is working on the legitimisation of climate refugees in the UK, and we only have to look at the news today to see the impact that global warming is having on the world. Considering the ever-increasing risk of displacement because of climate change, YCA Wales aims to present a petition to the House of Commons calling for this recognition. The Leader supported this petition and hoped that colleagues was also consider supporting the petition.
Questions to the Leader
Councillor M Evans:
The UK Conservative Government were continuing with their holiday activities and food programme in England to provide support for the most vulnerable children on Free School Meals (FSM). The Welsh Government withdrew this whilst giving the Council £1.5M for street signs alone, Councillor Evans therefore asked if the Leader considered that the Welsh Government had their priorities right.
Response:
The Leader advised that in Wales representative democracy is made of a number of different political parties and Welsh Government (WG) operated under the auspices of a co-operative agreement with Plaid Cymru. Colleagues that watched the media coverage at the Senedd would see that it showed a difference of opinion between those two parties that form the coalition. The Leader was deeply disappointed that Plaid Cymru did not agree to release funding under the co-operation agreement to continue with Free School Meals during the summer holidays. Whilst the question from Councillor Evans was about priorities, the Leader agreed that it was a question of priority but would not look to the WG in terms of those priorities but would instead cast her gaze at Plaid Cymru.
Councillor Whitehead:
Millbrook Primary School closed in July 2022 this impacted on many people, the children being the most affected. Good teachers had retired early, parents had removed children, staff sickness rates were through the roof and supply staff were reticent to attend. There is no definite date for a plan of action and education standards would be affected. On top of this there are transport costs, taking and collecting children to and from Brynglas. There are approximately 60 children in a classroom with two teachers; education standards would surely be affected because of this. Councillor Whitehead therefore asked if the Leader could meet with everyone concerned within the whole Millbrook scenario and decision makers to speed up the situation. Time is vital to these children. Would the Leader also kindly take receipt of a plea statement from the Governors and the Save the Children Team.
Response:
The Leader was happy to accept the plea statement, which was handed to her by Councillor Whitehead and began by thanking all educational professionals and everyone involved in the work for schools. The Leader understood the challenges faced by moving to a temporary location and appreciated their dedication and commitment to the children in their care, which was outstanding. It went without saying that everyone, the Local Authority and the Cabinet Member for Education and Early Years, all wanted the best outcomes possible for all on the Bettws Estate and for the children to thrive and flourish.
One of the challenges is where to put the children and to learn from the situation at St Andrews Primary School who faced similar challenges, as children attending there were transferred into the Connect Centre. The planning permission had recently been approved for their new school. This provided a realistic understanding of the timeframe it took to work through these issues. If the Leader could create a space for the Bettws children to be as close as possible to their school she would create it, unfortunately we were not in that position. The Leader thanked everyone that worked so hard to make the Brynglas Centre a positive environment and recognised the disruption caused to families. Officers were ensuring that parents, stakeholders, and elected members were kept aware of developments and had received a range of correspondence from parents, governing body, and Save the Children. The Chief Executive’ Office has invited the head teacher and chair of governors to a meeting with the Deputy Leader, the Head of Education, and the Leader to talk through their concerns.
The challenge is the timeframe for any construction-related activity, but an option is needed for the future, and it must be the best possible option for the children. Currently, feasibility work is taking place to better understand decisions required and to share the recommendations with the community. This, however, is not straightforward and the first item on the agenda, colleagues would recall, is the Treasury Management report; at Cabinet a week before, the Capital Outturn report had been discussed. There is very limited capital headroom available, and therefore the Council must be prudent when borrowing and would also need to seek support from WG in terms of capital finance to support the right solution for the community as a one-off investment opportunity to help the children to build a successful foundation for the rest of their lives. This meant that there were no quick decisions and there is presently nothing that the Leader could do to expedite this. The Leader hoped the work would be concluded soon and looked forward to receiving a response from the head teacher and the chair of governors at the proposed meeting. The Leader looked forward to receiving a response to take to WG with Band C proposals to ensure that Millbrook Primary School was a priority. The Leader understood the frustrations, however there are real limitations to go through as part of this process. The Leader confirmed she is open to dialogue on the issue and had extended the open offer to the head teacher and governors.