This final local elections post is arguably the most important of all – a summary of what the main parties and groups standing in Bridgend are pledging to do if elected.
All of the following relate to Bridgend County Borough Council. There’s absolutely no way in hell I’m going to do anything like this for the 20 separate town and community councils.
I’ve selected up to 10 stand-out policies/pledges from the manifestos or policy statements published by the parties and main groups standing in the county council elections.
Postal votes will have already gone out, but if you’re living in one of the wards taking part in early voting pilots, you’ll be able to vote from tomorrow (3rd May). For everyone else, polling day is Thursday 5th May between 7 am – 10 pm.
As for the results, by the looks of things the count is taking place on Friday and the final results aren’t expected until late in the afternoon. I expect to have a post on the county council results out by Saturday afternoon and the community and town council results by Sunday afternoon or Monday morning.
Finally, I’d like to wish all candidates standing for the county council and/or the town and community councils the best of luck. It takes guts and commitment to stick your neck out and run for office regardless of whether you’re successful or not. Be proud that you’re doing your bit.
Most of this is based on the policies of the Bridgend County Independents group via social media. Some of the other Independent groups (i.e. Llynfi Independents) may have slightly different policies and there will also be some Independents standing without the backing or support of a group.
- Renegotiate the terms of Bridgend’s membership of the Cardiff Capital/City Region. If those negotiations fail, Bridgend will withdraw from the city region.
- Scrap the 500% increase in hire fees for sports facilities.
- Review school catchment areas, safe walking/cycling routes to school and seek to reinstate free home-school transport where there is no safe walking/cycling route.
- Support granting more powers, assets and autonomy to “competent” town and community councils; would seek to improve the governance of all 20 town/community councils and give town/community councils a greater voice in planning and other consultations (where the law allows).
- Undertake a “top-to-bottom” review of the council’s finances to address high council tax rates. Would set a new budget from scratch instead of altering the current one and make greater use of the council’s money reserves – reducing them to the all-Wales average.
- Consider bringing more services in-house where it can be proven to be more efficient.
- Create a role of County Engineer who would be responsible for asset management, project management and general maintenance. The longer-term the aim would be to rebuild BCBC’s in-house expertise instead of being “reliant on expensive consultants”.
- Restructure the council’s cabinet so cabinet members/councillors are directly-responsible for policy-making. The new Cabinet would also face a scrutiny panel of members of the public once a quarter/every three months.
In the State of the Parties post I said that when it came to the Independents it was “far easier to complain about something not being done than to come up with a plan to do something about it”.
I got some flak for that, but I’m big enough to admit when I’m wrong. It’s clear that there is a plan and it’s arguably the most comprehensive and wide-ranging of those put forward at this election. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see it earlier – and it’s not without issues.
The main organised group of Independents’ pitch revolves around reform to how the council is run behind the scenes.
There are several references to local controversies such as school transport, facility hire fees and high rates of council tax. There’s also a commitment to make the Cabinet more directly accountable for policy-making and to residents – when at present it seems like they’re spokespeople for officers (who actively make decisions or guide them that way through recommendations).
They could’ve gone further and proposed a directly-elected mayor for Bridgend and switching to single transferable vote for council elections (which they have the power to do now).
Given the influence Independents have – and will seemingly continue to have – at the town/community council level, it’s no surprise that they support granting them more autonomy and extra powers, but reforms must come first.
While they state that this would only apply to “competent” town/community councils I’m not convinced that many of them are ready for additional responsibilities. Based on the number of vacancies and the struggle to find candidates, there’s a fundamental question as to whether Bridgend needs 20 town/community councils and 235 community councillors.
There’s a risk that if town/community councils are expected to do too much too soon we’ll see more incidences like those in Maesteg and Porthcawl. If, however, it works then it could lead to greater local say over issues and facilities that matter to them.
Now the downside. What if their proposed reviews can’t find any significant savings? Naturally, the following question is “What would you cut?” Also, if the council is seemingly too reliant on external consultants, then that points at there being significant problems within the council that would need to be fixed before you start talking about bringing services and expertise back in-house. That’ll take time and money that they may find they don’t have.
The problem – not only facing the Independents, but Labour and anyone else seeking to run the council – is uncertainty about how much money councils are given year-to-year, which is dependent on the UK Government and Welsh Government.
Last but not least, the policy that isn’t getting the attention or proper scrutiny it deserves is the proposal to renegotiate and potentially withdraw from the Cardiff City Region.
We know roughly how much BCBC is contributing towards it (between £11-12million) and it’s starting to come under greater criticism and facing calls for reform. But the imminent move to a Corporate Joint Committee (CJC) to run the city region seemingly closes the door on the possibility – no matter how remote – of a “Bridgexit”.
There was, as I understand it, a five-year “lock-in” period all councils originally signed up to as well. Also, there’s this is from the original UK-Welsh Government city deal agreement (pdf):
