It’s local election time and with the campaign now underway, it’s worth taking stock of Bridgend Council’s performance over the last term – where they’ve got things right, where they need to improve and where things have gone wrong. All-Wales local election coverage is over at State of Wales.
Use the drop down menu or click next to move from section to section.
Recycling
We deserve most of the credit here. Bridgend’s relatively high recycling rate (69.2% in 2020-21) is down to your efforts, not anything the council or Kier have done. You’re the ones doing the right thing by sorting your rubbish and putting the bins out at the right place at the right time.
Given the disastrous start to the Kier recycling contract during 2017-18 things have turned around. Once again, the credit needs to go to the refuse workers on the ground who are out in all weathers.
The overall impression you get is that people are generally satisfied with how things are. While the situation has stabilised in most parts of the county, there remain ongoing problems in places where rubbish is collected communally (like Wildmill), where the streets are too narrow or where collection is difficult for other reasons.
The big question – given that the Kier contract is set to end during the next term – is whether waste collections will be brought back in-house?
Delivery of the School Modernisation Programme
In fairness, the council have done well to protect school budgets (for the most part) and commit to the programme to replace older schools.
Maybe this isn’t being done as quickly as it should be, but by the looks of things they’ve got their priorities right and the new schools are – more often than not – delivered on time and relatively quickly (given they all seem to use the same modular design now).
There are black marks here. It’s worth asking whether the council have properly modelled population changes on new housing developments given overcrowding issues at Coety Primary (Parc Derwen)?
Also, there are the emerging road safety problems caused by the layout of the parking/drop off areas at some schools (recently demonstrated at Brynmenyn Primary).
Another looming problem is that in the next 20 years or so a lot of schools ranked C (on the A-D scale) will begin falling into serious disrepair if maintenance budgets aren’t increased.
Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic
It’s been a rough couple of years for everyone, but perhaps council staff haven’t got the praise they deserve.
Council staff at all levels, which includes schools, have performed admirably to keep services going in some way despite continued setbacks and needing to adapt to new ways of working quickly and often at short notice.
The only grumble would be that the alternative to free school meals provided by the council during lockdowns wasn’t particularly good – though they later responded to complaints by changing this to vouchers.
Digital Council & Webcasting
You’ll probably have different opinions on whether the shift to online services is a good or bad thing, but I’d lean towards the former. The BCBC website has been significantly improved over the last few years and it’s usually fairly straightforward to find the information you’re looking for.
In some cases, BCBC may even be ahead of the curve with the introduction of the chatbot and move towards more distant working (albeit with unintended consequences of that in mind).
Of course, the council still has to ensure that people who – for whatever reason – can’t or don’t want to access digital services are still able to do so in person.
The pandemic also forced the council to webcast meetings as standard, though I still have no idea why BCBC dragged their feet for so long on webcasting given its importance in improving transparency and public engagement.
Social Care
Nearly all the reports etc. that I’ve seen suggest very high levels of satisfaction with adult social care in particular. Despite increasing demand and funding pressures, the council’s contractors seem to provide a consistent level of service – it’s just a question as to how long that can last?
So in some ways, this is a backhanded criticism and the service is performing well despite the council rather than because of them. It’s also one of the many areas that have been outsourced, meaning it’s become confusing to work out what services Bridgend Council provide directly anymore.
The council has also listened to concerns from the care sector in Bridgend and abandoned plans for open procurement – which could have resulted in companies with no track record being awarded social care contracts.
Additionally, care workers are finally getting something close to the pay and working conditions they deserve (at a minimum) with moves towards paying a living wage.
