Cabinet Vision Statement 2022 - 2027 (July 2022)

Cabinet Structure

Leader - Cllr Darren Price

Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Homes - Cllr Linda Evans

Cabinet member for Organisation and Workforce - Cllr Philip Hughes

Cabinet Member for Resources - Cllr Alun Lenny

Cabinet Member for Rural Affairs, Community Cohesion and Planning Policy - Cllr Ann Davies

Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Decarbonisation and Sustainability - Cllr Aled Vaughan Owen

Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Leisure, Culture and Tourism - Cllr Hazel Evans

Cabinet Member for Education and Welsh Language - Cllr Glynog Davies

Cabinet Member for Health and Social Services - Cllr Jane Tremlett

Cabinet Member for Transport, Waste and Infrastructure Services - Cllr Edward Thomas

Education

Start Well - Enabling our children and young people to have the best possible start in life

• Continue investment in school buildings across the county and overhaul Carmarthenshire’s Sustainable Communities for Learning Program to meet the needs of the 21st century. Ensuring that all new schools meet the required standards of insulation and ventilation to cut energy bills and be more environmentally friendly.
• Look to improve the availability of early years education and childcare settings across the county, particularly in rural areas; with a particular focus on providing and strengthening Welsh-medium childcare in all areas.
• Continue to ensure that pupils with additional learning needs (ALN) are fully supported to meet their potential in line with ALN Reform.
• Work alongside schools to increase school attendance rates and improve access to education for vulnerable pupils.
• Increase the utilisation of school facilities for community use outside of teaching hours.
• Work with schools to deliver a full and rounded curriculum which aspires to raise  educational standards and ensures that pupils understand and celebrate their local history, geography, and culture.
• In line with the vision of Welsh Government, provide high quality nutritious free school meals to all primary school pupils, over the lifetime of the administration.
• Support the provision of opportunities for residents in the county to engage in essential learning in literacy, numeracy, and digital skills, in line with current Welsh Government funding. Enabling post 16 learners to upskill for employment and progression, as well as lifelong learning and community benefits and offer learners’ high quality 21st century learning environments.
• Ensure that the standard of learning and teaching in our schools is of a high quality to support our learners to make appropriate progress.
• In line with the Welsh Government’s programme, increase the availability of bilingual and Welsh medium education in our schools, following thorough consultation with parents, school governing bodies, learners, and the local community.
• Work with Welsh Government to consider the effectiveness of anti-COVID ventilation devices in schools.

Health and Social Care

Live Well - Enabling our Residents to live and age well

• To work with Hywel Dda University Health Board to deliver seamless integrated Health and Social Care wherever possible.
• Invest in local efficient council run services to rebalance the market across all elements of adult and children social care.
• Increase the level of supported accommodation to specifically facilitate safe discharge from hospital and/or the need for residential care for vulnerable adults.
• Further expand the Delta Connect service to provide proactive technology enabled care to vulnerable people within their own homes together with a package of emergency support, monitoring, and wellbeing calls.
• Work with the Health Board to provide readily accessible and appropriate levels of support to all with Mental Health issues with an expansion of access and support to Children and Vulnerable Adults.
• Further support a Care Academy giving a career pathway for care work, including professional development and training for young people leaving school. Work to double the number of staff supported to gain a Social Work degree.
• Support the ambition to rebalance the market and take profit out of children’s care by opening of a Children’s Home for children with complex needs in Carmarthenshire.
• Work with Welsh Government to create and define a National Care Service that delivers national standards of care with local delivery of services to meet our community’s needs.
• Continue to better integrate health and care and work towards parity of recognition and reward for health and care workers.
• Continue to provide support to keep children at home with their families and out of the care system wherever possible and lobby Welsh Government to provide additional resources for foster and kinship carers to support the children in their care.
• Continue to improve the support available to carers across the county.
• Develop preventative services to meet the demands of an ageing population.

Homes

• Invest in quality housing, providing a sustainable boost to economic growth and support the principle that everyone should be able to live and work in the communities of their upbringing.
• Deliver mixed tenure homes, consisting of homes for social rent, low-cost home ownership and open market sales, creating balanced, strong, resilient communities.
• Recognise the needs of our diverse communities, ensuring that the right homes are built in the right places. These will include single person accommodation, family sized houses, bungalows, and apartments.
• Provide affordable homes for young and working aged people to help them remain in the county and benefit from the additional jobs created. This will help maintain culture and identity especially in rural towns and villages.
• Aid town centre regeneration by providing mixed tenure housing in our town centres.
• Focus on developing increasingly sustainable and efficient housing with stock future proofed and retrofitted to tackle Climate Change and rising energy costs.
• Lobby Welsh Government for a solution to phosphate regulations which are currently obstructing the building of affordable and open market homes.
• Consider the greater use of the additional powers afforded by Welsh Government to tackle the second homes crisis.
• Work with Welsh Government to deliver a system of fair rents with a view to making the private rental market affordable for local people on local incomes and new approaches to making homes affordable.
• Continue to work with key partners to end homelessness.
• Reduce the number of council house voids and empty properties across the county creating more homes for local people.

Economy

Making our communities and environment, healthy, safe and prosperous

• Continue regeneration plans to safeguard and support over 1,400 businesses. In the shorter term we will provide employment support to some 3,000 people, helping a further 850 into full-time employment. Major investment and developments will help the local economy recover post-COVID.
• In Llanelli we will deliver several retail sites in the town centre, which have already had planning permission. We will maximise the community benefits arising from the multi-million-pound Pentre Awel scheme at Llanelli, the first development of this size and scope in Wales, which will create 1,800 well-paid jobs.
• We will support and encourage people to lead active and healthy lives, ensure supply chain opportunities for local businesses, and local recruitment.
• In Carmarthen, following its purchase by the County Council, work will soon start on transforming the former Debenhams building into a community hub incorporating health, leisure, education, and cultural activities together with public sector, business and tourist information and advice services. Small and independent business will be encouraged to develop, grow, and expand in the town centre, supporting hospitality facilities and enhancing the evening economy.
• The Masterplan for Ammanford will be actioned to bring new life back to a town which has suffered a gradual and distressing decline since the local coalmines closed. Disjointed areas of the town centre will be unified through better-quality highway design, pedestrian links, and the redesign of key open spaces. The weekly market will be grown to include a greater number of stalls. Undertake a feasibility study for a leisure centre in the centre of the town.
• Continue to lobby Welsh Government to reopen the Amman Valley railway line to passengers as part of the Swansea Bay Metro.
• Ten Towns - Continue to develop plans for our 10 rural towns and surrounding areas: Llandeilo, Llandovery, Llanybydder, Newcastle Emlyn, Cross Hands, Cwmaman, Kidwelly, Laugharne, St Clears and Whitland. These plans aim to secure economic, cultural, social, and environmental sustainability.
• Work with partners to create a second phase of ARFOR in order to maximise the economic benefits to Carmarthenshire.
• Continue to submit robust bids in order to attract funding across the county, including UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the Levelling Up Fund, replacing former EU sources of funding.
• Continue to attract inward investment where high levels of productivity, competitiveness and wage can be achieved.
• We will promote the ‘Think Carmarthenshire First’ approach widely across the Authority, encouraging officers to seek quotations from local suppliers. We will continue to support local businesses to bid for work by targeting specific tendering opportunities across the county and promoting our forward work programme in advance.
• Do everything we can to increase our local procurement spend and upscale above the current 53%.

Environment and Transport

• Continue and accelerate the aim of being a Net Zero Carbon Local Authority by 2030 and set up a cross-party working group to move the Net Zero Carbon and Nature Emergency agenda forward.
• Utilise a phased approach for the implementation of a new kerbside waste collection system in 2024/25, that is compliant with Welsh Governments’ Blueprint collection methodology. This will mean that households will receive a weekly recycling, food and glass collection services from 24/25. In the meantime, an interim transitional phase will introduce weekly blue bag collections, weekly food collection, three weekly kerbside glass and non-recyclable waste collection from Autumn 2022. In addition, we will introduce a nappy collection service from early summer 2022.
• Review the current vehicle fleet strategy with a view to utilising the most suitable and low emissions vehicle technology (including electric or other power sources) over the coming years. This will include replacement of refuse collection vehicles and other vehicles within our fleet as appropriate. This will make a significant contribution to our efforts to decarbonise our services in order to address our local, national, and global commitment to Net Zero Carbon.
• Increase renewable energy on council houses and other buildings to reduce domestic bills and help meet climate change targets.
• Help people who don’t have cars or other means of personal transport to get about by developing a community transport strategy that will identify potential new initiatives and identify how existing schemes could be expanded or enhanced e.g. the Bwcabus and minibus brokerage schemes.
• Work with regional partners to look at the feasibility of setting up a publicly owned bus company and the accompanying logistical requirements to serve areas not currently served by existing companies, subject to a change in legislation to allow municipal bus companies to be set up.
• Continue to lobby UK Government and the Welsh Government for a fair share of rail investment in west Wales. Calling for a direct 1-hour fast train service from Cardiff to Carmarthen. This will include the lobbying for and supporting the reopening of other lines localised service and branch lines.
• Lobby Welsh Government for a feasibility study for a passenger railway and cycle route along the Gwendraeth Valley.
• To continue to bid for finances via Welsh Government to enable further roll out of public access charging points across the county in accordance with our Electric Vehicle Infrastructure strategy, with a particular focus on the strategic highway network initially, as well as looking at locations across urban and rural areas, as the number of electric vehicles increase. This will allow us to build on the success of the current suite of chargers that have been installed, including the first super-charging hub in Cross Hands.
• Increase the biodiversity of all council owned land, and recognise the strong interrelationship between climate change, the loss of biodiversity and human wellbeing. Consider the use of CCC land for creating havens of wildflowers and pollinators, including roadsides and verges. We cannot solve the threats of human induced climate change and loss of biodiversity in isolation. We either solve both or we solve neither.
• Work with the Dyfed Pension Fund to continue the journey on reducing its carbon intensity and encourage the Dyfed Pension Fund to work with and learn from other pension funds with a view to further disinvestment in fossil fuels and non-ethicalinvestments.
• Ensure that there are systems in place to efficiently manage Planning Enforcement across the county.
• Continue to engage with and lobby Welsh Government on their commitment to construct a bypass for Llandeilo.
• Increase renewable energy on council owned land and work with partners to support renewable energy schemes across the county.
• Support the delivery of the Councils Strategic Economic Objectives by the determination of major planning applications within agreed timescales.
• Ensure effective services in terms of managing and maintaining key infrastructure assets that include highway, drainage, street scene and local amenity assets.
• Support the principle of responsible afforestation, in consultation with local communities and without having a detrimental impact on local employment, culture and community viability.
• Continue to review and assess the need for safer routes and traffic calming measures across Carmarthenshire’s towns and villages as part of our road safety initiatives, whilst awaiting the outcome of the Welsh Government proposed 20mph speed limit pilot study, prior to a final decision by Welsh Government on implementing the full 20mph speed limit initiative across Wales.
• Develop facilities within Carmarthenshire County Council offices to support Active Travel for visitors, members and officers. Looking at bike racks, changing rooms, shower facilities etc.
• Deliver the cycle and pedestrian path from Carmarthen to Llandeilo which will be a huge boost to local towns and villages, and tourism throughout the county.
• Work with Welsh Government to ensure electricity infrastructure is in place to allow us to develop ambitious renewable energy projects to reach net zero.

Leisure and Heritage

• Start work on a new Leisure Centre for Llanelli, as part of the first phase of Pentre Awel.
• Deliver a new 3G sports pitch at Ammanford.
• Complete a feasibility study for a Skateboard Park and further develop the BMX Pump track in Pembrey.
• Consider the feasibility of developing more cycle/walking paths on redundant railway lines, including the former Cardi Bach line to the north of Whitland.
• Develop a strategy and assess the need for all weather pitches across the county.
• Develop Oriel Myrddin Gallery in Carmarthen as the West Wales Arts Centre and open the County Archive in King St.
• Working with local communities to develop cultural and historical trails accessible to residents and tourists. Encourage residents to take ownership of their local areas by creating community trails based on local knowledge. As part of a broader scheme, look at ways of developing trails based around the many castles and historic sites across the county.
• Continuously review cultural exhibits and events to ensure that they are regularly updated, timely and relevant. Take full advantage of the rich history of Carmarthenshire.
• Consider the powers available in relation to local tourism levies and the impact of their introduction locally.
• Develop a sport for all approach to support a broad range of participation in sports, from beginners to elite.
• To increase the local economic impact of day visitors and overnight tourists across rural and urban Carmarthenshire.
• We will promote and support appropriate opportunities at Pembrey Racing Circuit.

Rural Affairs

• Maximise the potential positive contribution to the economic, social, cultural, and environmental sustainability of the local community through our rural portfolio ownership and working with key stakeholders.
• Further build on our relationship with the Wales Federation of Young Farmers Clubs(YFC), an invaluable organisation in rural areas.
• Work in schools to educate learners about food production and how to cook healthy meals using local produce.
• Consider ways of simplifying the process of converting redundant farm buildings into homes or workshops for local people.
• Help local village halls to expand on their services, such as a community café, for economic benefit, access to services, to combat rural loneliness and increase resilience.
• Following withdrawal of Welsh Government funding, explore all possible funding options to support a programme of improving the condition of rural roads.
• Continue to build on Carmarthenshire’s status as a sustainable food place and in collaboration with other partners, develop a community food strategy to encourage the production and supply of locally sourced food in Wales.

Cultural and Equalities

• Support the publication of the Race Equality Action Plan.
• Support campaigns to strengthen the rights of disabled people and tackle the inequalities they continue to face.
• Support the publication of the Welsh Government LGBTQ+ Action Plan.
• Continue to increase and promote the use of the Welsh language within the administration of the County Council.
• Work with stakeholders to increase the proportion of Welsh-medium apprenticeships.

Tackling Poverty

• Appoint a Cabinet Member to lead on the Tackling Poverty Agenda.
• Review the Terms of Reference of the Tackling Poverty Advisory Panel to ensure that they have the necessary scope to undertake a review of the work required in relation to Tackling Poverty.
• Request that the Tackling Poverty Advisory Panel immediately begins an additional strand of work in relation to the current cost of living crisis.
• Work with external bodies to tackle and understand what can be done to support residents immediately and in the short term in order to mitigate the negative effect on individual finances as the cost of living continues to spiral.
• Support the devolution of the administration of welfare and the necessary infrastructure required to prepare for it.

Organisation

Work well - To further modernise and develop as a resilient and efficient Council

• Consider and implement appropriate changes in line with Welsh Government Council Tax reform.
• Ensuring that Carmarthenshire County Council is a diverse and inclusive organisation
• To work with relevant groups to promote the council as an employer across all communities including within the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic community.
• Work with the Public Services Board to drive community engagement and good practice in relation to recruitment from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.
• To work with relevant external groups, to improve representation and signposting for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities on the Council’s website.
• To look at ways of improving the quality of our workforce equality data and continuously improve the quality of information gathered in order to improve workforce planning and management.
• Work to position our recruitment competitively and work towards continuously improving recruitment levels across the organisation. Seeking to understand the steps needed in order to become the employer of choice in West Wales.
• Work to market Carmarthenshire County Council as an attractive employer for apprentices, school leavers and graduates. Focusing on reducing the migration of young people out of Carmarthenshire and from rural areas.
• Consider the short and long-term capacity of our workforce to deliver the current administration’s vision.
• Develop focused training for Members on areas relating specifically to equality, diversity, and equity, to be included within Code of Conduct training.
• A cultural commitment to scrutiny, taking action to encourage scrutiny that is challenging and recognising that its work must be designed to have impact. Acknowledging that in order to achieve good scrutiny Member and Public participation is key.
• Continue to embrace and promote agile working, hybrid meetings and new ways of working across the organisation.
• Work with Welsh Government, Public Service partners and Trade Unions in further progressing the Real Living Wage agenda.
• Further increase our use of the latest digital technology to further transform the services delivered by the Council.
• To develop a Council Transformation Strategy which will provide the strategic framework to support the implementation of a programme of transformation and change across the organisation.
• Keep regional partnership working under review, together with local government partners, to ensure they are efficient and work for Carmarthenshire as new Corporate Joint Committee arrangements are introduced.
• Continue to work with Town and Community Councils for the benefit of our residents and communities.