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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
AGREED – T H A T the minutes of the meeting held on 5th October 2023 be approved as a correct record. Minutes - AR No.
AGREED – (1) T H A T Inspector Childs be thanked for their time and verbal update. (2) T H A T Inspector Biddle also be invited to provide a verbal update to the Committee, on an annual basis (minimum), in relation to the Cardiff Bay and Penarth areas as per their geographical responsibilities.
AGREED - T H A T In the absence of Group Manager Treherne, Mr. Treherne be contacted by the Democratic and Scrutiny Services Officer following the meeting, to request an extended verbal update at the next meeting of the Committee.
AGREED – T H A T both the reference and appended report from the Corporate Performance and Resources Scrutiny Committee be noted. Reason for decision Having regard to the contents of both the reference and appended report to update the Committee on the work being undertaken to tackle poverty and the cost-of-living crisis within the Vale of Glamorgan and to set out the Council’s approach to responding to three Audit Wales reports on the challenges of poverty in Wales.
AGREED - T H A T Councillor Steph Bonnar of Llanfair Community Council be elected as the Community Council Representative on the Strong Communities Fund Evaluation Panel up to the 2027 Local Government elections. Reason for decision Having regard to the contents of the report to enable Town and Community Councils to have involvement in the evaluation of bids to the Council's Strong Communities Grant Fund. Minutes - AR
These were received from Councillors S. Campbell, S. Haines and R.R. Thomas and B. Morris (Colwinston Community Council), K. Hatton (Dinas Powys Community Council), S.M. Toker (Substitute) (St. Athan Community Council) and A. Thomas (Welsh St. Donats Community Council).
Decision as recorded
AGREED – T H A T the minutes of the meeting held on 5th October 2023 be approved as a correct record. Minutes - AR No.
AGREED – T H A T the minutes of the meeting held on 5th October 2023 be approved as a correct record. Minutes - AR No.
No declarations of interest were received.
Decision as recorded
AGREED – (1) T H A T Inspector Childs be thanked for their time and verbal update. (2) T H A T Inspector Biddle also be invited to provide a verbal update to the Committee, on an annual basis (minimum), in relation to the Cardiff Bay and Penarth areas as per their geographical responsibilities.
Inspector Childs apprised the Committee on the following community initiatives and policing matters for the Vale of Glamorgan area since their last update provided to the Committee in October 2023 as follows: • Credit given to Police Community Support Officer Ashley Beckett for securing funding over the Christmas period and arranging the delivery of chocolates and biscuits to over 40 care homes in Barry and the wider Vale delivered by local school children. The initiative was really well received. • Operation Stopwatch – an annual operation targeting shoplifting over the Christmas period in the Holton Road area in Barry. As a result of the operation a number of shoplifters were identified and caught. • As a result of proactive patrols, officers were able to respond quickly to an active robbery. The local individual involved was known to the police and was caught not far from the scene where the serious offence in relation to bodily harm and scooter theft was conducted. The individual was currently on bail in relation to the matter and was also found in possession of a knife the investigation was ongoing. • Thanks to the outstanding work of Sargeant Jake Rollnick a difficult domestic violence matter was resolved through community work and an individual had been located and arrested under charges of grievous bodily harm, domestic and sexual related offences and the individual had been charged and on remand in custody. • Officers from the Neighbourhood Policing Team were also involved and supported the Christmas lights public event in Barry Town Centre. The event was run successfully involving a light show in the Central Park area and also the operation of food and drinks stalls together with fairground rides. • Local Police Community Support Officers had attended Oakfield Primary School and had run a series of speed awareness activities. The young school children enjoyed helping officers to operate portable hand held devices in the streets outside of their school building and the event was both an engagement opportunity for local police officers as well as raising road safety awareness for young children. • Since the update provided at the last meeting of the Committee, in relation to the What-Three-Words initiative to efficiently identify persons with suicidal tendencies along the Vale of Glamorgan coastline, a well known TV personality, Ruth Dodsworth, was now involved with the project and was keen to run a piece in the coming weeks which would be broadcast via ITV. Advertising would not be promoting the exact reasons why the initiative had been developed as not to attract persons who were in distress to the areas along the coastline in question, therefore, the advertisement would mainly Minutes - AR No. be detailing a safety initiative encouraging people and families to come to engage with the coastline in a safe way and promoting active lifestyles. • Community Support Officer Steve Davies had been commended for his excellent work in relation to the new South Wales Listeners initiative which was a police initiative trying to encourage the public to sign up and report any problems they had experienced in their local area and therefore raise awareness and start necessary conversations to find practical solutions. Steve had done very well with promoting the initiative in his ward area of Cowbridge and had therefore built a lot of relationships with the Cowbridge community. • Praise and thanks had been received from the family of a gentleman who presented in medical distress in relation to a heart attack and the Neighbourhood Policing Team in the Llantwit Major area performed CPR on the individual and managed to ensure that the gentleman received first response care and transported to hospital as soon as possible. As a result, the gentleman was making a positive recovery. • Also in the Llantwit Major area, Community Support Officer Rhian Cummings had been co-ordinating a hate crime initiative alongside hate crime officer Marius Dixon. The initiative looked to identify the different strands of hate crime categories, the subsequent offences involved and to give members of the public advice and suggestions for treating people with respect and dignity. • An increase in shoplifting offences was being reported on a national scale and was therefore one of the priorities for the service. As a result, local initiatives had been put in place in the Cardiff, Barry and Vale of Glamorgan areas whereby the service was targeting prolific shoplifters. Several arrests had been made for persons who had been involved in a number of shoplifting offences and one individual in particular had been charged with over 20 offences and remained in custody. An individual was also arrested in possession of a substantial amount of Class A drugs as a result of a warrant which was executed and the individual had been charged and remanded in custody with a vehicle seized. On the topic of other vehicles being seized, two further arrests were made following an initiative run by officers from the Neighbourhood Policing Team who worked in partnership with the Traffic Department as well as police helicopter deployment to undertake a dangerous pursuit in the Barry area that was eventually concluded and two individuals detained and arrested and charged with driving offences. There were also drugs within the vehicle that were seized which was a successful arrest. Following the Inspector’s update, the Town and Community Council representative for Sully and Lavernock Community Council queried the geographical jurisdiction covered by Inspector Childs and the Community council had particular interest in policing updates located closer to the Cardiff Capital. To which, the Inspector confirmed that they were responsible for the Barry Town area through to the western parts of the Vale of Glamorgan up to the Ogmore-by-Sea area. Therefore his colleague Inspector Abby Biddle was in charge of the Cardiff and the Penarth areas. However, Inspector Childs was happy to take any questions back to Inspector Biddle as they worked closely together. Minutes - AR No. In reply, Councillor Parry advised that the main issue of concern for the Sully and Lavernock area was a spate of car break-ins in Sully village. In response, Inspector Childs advised that to his knowledge no arrests had yet been made in relation to the aforementioned vehicle crimes however, investigations were ongoing and they would liaise with Inspector Biddle following the meeting and subsequently respond to the Sully and Lavernock Community Council directly. Councillor Asbrey then referred to the speed awareness initiative that Inspector Childs referred to in their presentation and queried if the initiative could be rolled out to the two schools in the Dinas Powys area. In response, Inspector Childs confirmed that the Dinas Powys area fell under the jurisdiction of Inspector Abby Biddle but the initiative had been run by Police Community Support Officers across the Vale of Glamorgan and could be set up quite quickly. Therefore, the Inspector offered to pass Councillor Asbrey’s request onto Inspector Biddle following the meeting. In light of the advice in relation to the geographical areas covered by both Inspectors, Councillor Wilson moved that Inspector Biddle be invited to provide a presentation to the Committee on an annual basis in relation to eastern areas of the Vale of Glamorgan. In reply, Inspector Childs offered to liaise with Inspector Biddle following the meeting in order to ascertain if a presentation would be possible and to what frequency. With knowledge that Councillor Wilson was a Councillor for the Penarth Town Council area, and that Inspector Biddle had recently presented directly to a Penarth Town Council meeting, Inspector Childs added that there had been instances of commercial retail theft and security concerns in the Penarth area and was pleased to report that a series of arrests had subsequently been made and ongoing working was taking place to support commercial businesses with their security needs. In relation to instances of anti-social behaviour in the Holton Road area of Barry, Councillor Perkes enquired whether any progress had been made in other areas and whether the matter was still of concern. In response, Inspector Childs advised that there had been issues in the Holton Road area in relation to anti-social behaviour as raised by the local shop keepers and the ringleaders were identified amongst a group of individuals between the ages of 16 to 18 years and had subsequently been approached and charges raised. Two individuals were being investigated in relation to more other serious crime matters however, this was being dealt with accordingly. The Representative for St. Nicholas and Bonvilston Community Council, Councillor Ian Perry, then took the opportunity to thank Inspector Childs for recent updates that had been made to contact information on the police website. Councillor Perry then advised of road block issues in the St. Nicholas area related to development taking place and related contractor vehicles and queried what local residents could do in the future if a police presence was required. In reply, Inspector Childs advised that police traffic vehicles were in regular use and available to respond to highway matters. Some vehicles were recently off-road for essential maintenance and services, however, replacement vehicles were in operation during that time. Police presence was not restricted to police vehicles as officers would also use public transport available. If police were made aware of a Minutes - AR No. congestion issue then a foot officer could be deployed to interact with the relevant contractors and the Inspector offered to raise the matter with their relevant colleague, Chris Thomas, following the meeting and kindly asked that Councillor Perry email him directly regarding the matter to provide further context. Councillor Perry then noted the historical road noise pollution issue for the St. Nicholas area and raised concerns in relation to lane widths in the ward area and suggested that road widths should be assessed to promote road safety by reducing lane width in the area using section 106 funding available. In response, Inspector Childs sympathised with the fact that the St. Nicholas area would have traffic travelling through the village from other outer roads with higher speed limits in place and that there could be many arguments for and against narrow lane widths, for example, promoting active travel through bike lanes. With no further comments or questions, the Committee subsequently AGREED – (1) T H A T Inspector Childs be thanked for their time and verbal update. (2) T H A T Inspector Biddle also be invited to provide a verbal update to the Committee, on an annual basis (minimum), in relation to the Cardiff Bay and Penarth areas as per their geographical responsibilities.
Decision as recorded
AGREED - T H A T In the absence of Group Manager Treherne, Mr. Treherne be contacted by the Democratic and Scrutiny Services Officer following the meeting, to request an extended verbal update at the next meeting of the Committee.
The Democratic and Scrutiny Services Officer confirmed that Mr. Treherne had not joined the remote meeting and therefore an update was not available. As a result, the Committee agreed to the suggestion raised by the Democratic and Scrutiny Services Officer that Mr. Treherne be contacted by themselves following the meeting, to request an extended verbal update at the next meeting of the Committee. AGREED - T H A T In the absence of Group Manager Treherne, Mr. Treherne be contacted by the Democratic and Scrutiny Services Officer following the meeting, to request an extended verbal update at the next meeting of the Committee.
Decision as recorded
AGREED – T H A T both the reference and appended report from the Corporate Performance and Resources Scrutiny Committee be noted. Reason for decision Having regard to the contents of both the reference and appended report to update the Committee on the work being undertaken to tackle poverty and the cost-of-living crisis within the Vale of Glamorgan and to set out the Council’s approach to responding to three Audit Wales reports on the challenges of poverty in Wales.
The Operational Manager for Corporate Strategy and Insight presented the reference from the Corporate Performance and Resources Scrutiny Committee meeting on the of 18th October 2023 , in order to update the Committee on the work being undertaken to tackle poverty and the cost-of-living crisis within the Vale of Glamorgan and to set out the Council’s approach to responding to three Audit Wales reports on the challenges of poverty in Wales. Minutes - AR No. The report detailed the findings and recommendations from the three Audit Wales reports and the approach being taken in response to said reports. The three reports were: • Time for Change – Poverty in Wales, • A Missed Opportunity – Social Enterprises, and • Together We Can – Community Resilience and Self Reliance The three reports encouraged changes in how the Council worked with the community, the third sector and social enterprises and formed part of Audit Wales’ work on tackling poverty across Wales. The Officer drew Members attention to page 13 of the covering report which set out the proposed approach going forward in relation to engagement and progress reporting through paragraphs 2.32 – 2.37. A series of facilitated workshops and discussion forums for stakeholders, officers and elected members would be held and facilitated by a third party, Cwmpas, to provide independence and challenge but also continuity across the discussions. The workshops would provide an opportunity to explore the Council’s current position, knowledge levels and ways of working and consider what needed to change, how and at what pace. The work would need to take place over a number of months and would run in parallel to the development of the new Corporate Plan. In addition, the Director of Corporate Resources advised of the intended objectives of the engagement and workshops that Town & Community Councils would be given the opportunity to engage with in the near future as follows: - To have a better shared understanding of what a social enterprise organisation is and the benefits to the Council of working with them, - To have a better shared understanding of the third sector and the benefits to the Council of working with them, - Understanding of third sector and social enterprise perspective of working with the Council, - Understanding of how we can enhance the relationship between the Council and Town and Community Councils, - Understanding who we already work with and future opportunities, and - Understanding and identifying opportunities for how we can improve community resilience. Following the Director’s input, the Representative for Penarth Town Council, Councillor Michael Cuddy, advised that the Town Council had previously endorsed that the Charter be reviewed in line with the Audit reports. In their capacity as the Chair of a One Voice Wales Committee, the One Voice Wales Committee had considered the ‘Together We Can’ report which outlined the underlying benefits that would be necessary moving forward for principal councils to relinquish responsibilities and that the current financial crisis was the catalyst for such work. Effectively for principal councils to become facilitators rather than just provider. The ‘Together We Can’ report set out barriers to the community resilience model suggested following a survey of all principal councils in Wales and the Councillor Minutes - AR No. advised that they hoped that the Vale of Glamorgan Annual Delivery Plan would strive to meet the challenges set out. The report before Committee put resolve for Town and Community Councils to deal with the related Town and Community Councils’ Charter and Councillor Cuddy hoped that an action would be evidenced in the Vale Council’s Annual Delivery Plan that the Town and Community Council Charter would be reviewed in a fundamental way. In response, the Director thanked the representative for their comments and added that the premise of the Cabinet report, as appended, was that the Vale of Glamorgan Council work towards becoming a facilitator rather than a provider in some instances and that it provide a more holistic package rather than focusing on any one theme. The Town and Community Council Representative for Barry Town Council, Councillor Shirley Hodges, then advised of their concerns, after their consideration of the Charter rewrite, that Town and Community Councils were being asked for money to facilitate future services. To which, the Director of Corporate Resources advised that that was not the intention of the Charter review but rather an increase in partnership working between the Vale of Glamorgan Council and all Town and Community Councils and to focus on developments by 2030. With no further comments or questions, the Committee subsequently AGREED – T H A T both the reference and appended report from the Corporate Performance and Resources Scrutiny Committee be noted. Reason for decision Having regard to the contents of both the reference and appended report to update the Committee on the work being undertaken to tackle poverty and the cost-of-living crisis within the Vale of Glamorgan and to set out the Council’s approach to responding to three Audit Wales reports on the challenges of poverty in Wales.
Decision as recorded
AGREED - T H A T Councillor Steph Bonnar of Llanfair Community Council be elected as the Community Council Representative on the Strong Communities Fund Evaluation Panel up to the 2027 Local Government elections. Reason for decision Having regard to the contents of the report to enable Town and Community Councils to have involvement in the evaluation of bids to the Council's Strong Communities Grant Fund. Minutes - AR
The report was presented the Operational Manager for Regeneration, the purpose of which was to invite a representative from a Community Council to be a member of the Strong Communities Fund Evaluation Panel (“the Panel”). The Officer advised that the previous representative appointed in July 2022 had resigned from their respective Community Council and was therefore ineligible to remain a member of the Panel. The Community Council concerned had not responded to invitations to provide a replacement member to represent Community Councils on the panel and therefore a new representative from a Vale of Glamorgan Community Council was now invited to take a role on the panel. In conclusion, the Officer advised that the Panel was responsible for evaluating a range of bids/projects and making recommendations to Cabinet for the award of funding up to three times per year for approximately 2.5 hours each meeting. Minutes - AR No. Following the Officer’s presentation, a single nomination was received from Councillor Bonnar who wished to nominate themselves for the position. With no further nominations received, the nomination was moved by the Chair of the Committee and seconded by Councillor Payne, and Councillor Bonnar was duly elected by no dissent. AGREED - T H A T Councillor Steph Bonnar of Llanfair Community Council be elected as the Community Council Representative on the Strong Communities Fund Evaluation Panel up to the 2027 Local Government elections. Reason for decision Having regard to the contents of the report to enable Town and Community Councils to have involvement in the evaluation of bids to the Council's Strong Communities Grant Fund. Minutes - AR
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