Is all well with the PLC Coalition?

I only ask after what I am told by members and onlookers from all sides about last night's Council meeting to set the budget and council tax for next year. It would be a shame if such a principled bunch began to fall out - though I predict it won't happen until they've voted their placemen and women as Chairs and Vice-Chairs to the committees they were too inefficient to be able to capture on the last two occasions. (But will Rob Stewart actually turn up to Regeneration Scrutiny when he's Chair? I'm told that he's only ever attended one meeting...)

First, despite the fact that Plaid Cymru's amendments had been agreed to beforehand, it seems that David Phillips was still trying to renegotitate them with Darren 'Baby Face' Price as he was proposing. No wonder Phillips is facing a leadership challenge.

Then Labour voted against the amended motion, thus opposing both the transfer of an extra £500K for improving facilities for disabled people, and the installation of a sprinkler system in the new Penyrheol School. Not that the last one is much of a surprise really, as when the school burned down the last time, Labour rebuilt it without a sprinkler system. At least they're consistent.

Rene 'Dear Leader' Kinzett's New Model Tories proposed a 2% council tax increase to be paid for by either running reserves down to a dangerous and possibly illegal level, or presumably by £1.4m cuts in services. They didn't have the guts to explain what they would cut, though new convert Margaret Smith rather let the cat out of the bag by giving away details of the Tories' scheme to do away with Council water coolers. Is this the best they can do?

It's time for the Three Amigos to devote one of their regular meetings to putting the PLC Coalition back on track. What they need is a single leader..a Great Leader perhaps? I'm waiting for the 'Dear Leader' to defect to Labour myself...he could then join the two Labour insiders who are out to replace the hapless Phillips.

Every Little helps.

These two characters, (possibly of hetrosexual leaning despite the drink) proudly hold the key to the Conservatives proposal to implement a 2% rise in Council tax.

Lady Pennard obviously believes that taking the waters from the cold tap in the administration khazi is not only beneficial to maintaining ones sexuality but also has the side effect of saving the average council tax payer a whopping 24p a week. (In layman's terms: Half a small bottle of pow wow juice).

Lady Pennard's now legendary remark regarding cannistered water "turning you into a gender bender" was greeted from all sides of the chamber with the jovial response that the Tory ammendment merited.

These were the grounds for the proposed removal of all dispensers in County Hall in an attempt to make give Joe Public his weekly five bob.

The newly appointed Fiscal Affairs Spokesperson has got her career off to a flying start by revealing this central plank of Conservative local taxation policy.

However the cries of "Sit down Margaret, you've said quite enough, you're making our amendment look ridiculous" may indicate that the new tax saving policy has yet to meet the approval of the Cameron think tank.

A fresh approach?

The Inside Outers may well be right in saying that Councillor John Miles' comments on school closures is a fresh approach. However whether it heralds a new era in effective scrutiny is another question.

It is worth noting of course that Councillor Miles was commenting on the outcome of a review started under the previous regime, that up until his assumption of the Committee chairmanship his attendance was patchy to say the least and that overall the opposition had in any case largely abdicated the role of scrutiny.

What is interesting is the new Labour approach to school closures. As is clear from the article there are still some Labour stalwarts who do not believe that shutting down schools is a good idea at all. There is also no indication as to whether Councillor Miles speaks on behalf of the Labour group or not. Our betting is that if any proposals come along the Labour opportunists will jump on the anti bandwagon as they always have done.

The irony is that it is the administration who are less keen on school closures. Still if they find that such a course of action becomes necessary for sound educational reasons they can always ask John Miles to marshall his colleagues behind the proposal. Will they follow him, we wonder?

Update: How would the Labour spin doctors know how Administration Councillors behaved on scrutiny committees? They were never there. For the record the Administration have never operated a whip on scrutiny either.

Triumph @ Swansea

We are not in the habit of using this blog to pre-empt announcements by the Administration, so why exactly the Inside Outers felt that they should have read it here first that the Council is doing a deal with Cardiff on e-government we cannot say. Nevertheless if they choose to re-read our posts on this subject they will see that we have been hinting at it for some time.

Despite all the spin coming from Labour and the Tories the facts are these:

1. The Administration decided that the figures did not stack up on phase two with Capgemini and rather than take a risk with taxpayers money decided to look at other alternatives. Councillor Mary Jones told Council that it was still the intention to go ahead with the contact centre using a different provider.

2. No expenditure has been committed to phase two and therefore all the talk of money wasted is just nonsense. The figures on phase one are clear and add up. Now that we are proposing going into partnership to deliver phase two then we will be able to deliver the contact centre we promised.

3. As one comment on the Evening Post website said: "The council have delivered what they said they would, a new contact centre with the appropriate technology at a fraction of the original price quoted."

What is amusing is how suddenly everybody has acquired the powers of foresight. Councillor Mark Child for example tells the Post: "Unfortunately, we no longer have the IT expertise to be able to implement this in-house as they were all transferred to Capgemini. Having said that, this is the approach we have been advocating all along."

As Labour's Technology Spokesman Child should know that it was not the expertise that was lacking it was an appropriate record management system and if he really has been advocating this course of action all along then he must have been whispering it very quietly. It was certainly not on the agenda of the previous Labour Administration when they started service@swansea in the first place.

The Evening Post is equally as prescient. However, they also need to understand that the driver for going to another local authority was the fact that costings on phase two were not affordable. The use of Cardiff's CRM could not have happened without phase one being implemented first.

The Administration also did not inherit a blank sheet. When we took over a process was well underway with preferred bidders and all the legal advice was that we had to see it through or else end up paying compensation.

The outcome is much better than it could have been. We have a system in place that is starting to produce the anticipated savings and we also have a workable alternative to Capgemin so as to deliver phase two. We have done this without busting the budget originally set by Labour when they conceived of e-government in the first place.

Update: Labour reproduce a previous post of 28 April 2006 from the old Inside Swansea blog but all they have succeeded in doing is to prove our consistency on these matters. The Council is still on course to achieve its savings whilst the deal with Cardiff will guarantee the massively improved interface with the public that will transform the Council's customer service record. Labour ask what we have been doing for the last three years? The answer is sorting out the mess they left us and getting e-government right.

Investing in our future

The proposed Council budget includes a massive investment in Swansea’s future. £10.5 million has been earmarked to tackle the mountain of school repairs inherited from the previous Labour Administration. This includes £850,000 for the twelve schools in the worst condition.

Work is due to start on a new Welsh School in West Cross, whilst money has also been set aside to finish off the refurbishment of the Leisure Centre. This is on schedule to re-open by the end of the year.

A new Central Library is to be opened in County Hall as part of a civic centre project that will open up this building to general public use. This library will be complemented by a new contact centre to make it easier for the public to access Council services. In addition a new bowls hall will be opened in Plasmarl to replace the one that disappeared when the Leisure Centre closed.

Investment is also starting to come into the City Centre with work having started on re-developing the old David Evans site and with more developers interested in investing in the City as well. The Council is proposing to complete the bus link to the Fabian Way Park and Ride site in the next financial year, whilst the new lanes for buses, taxis and bicycles in the City Centre has eased public transport access whilst helping to tackle congestion.

The Administration are also anxious to start work on rebuilding the Quadrant Bus Station and are waiting to hear if their grant application to the Welsh Assembly Government has been successful. This scheme was held up by land acquisition issues prior to 2004 but we have got it back on track. The intention was always to fund it from Assembly Grant, all we need is that money to be approved and work can start.

Not a Coalition - honest!

All the constituent parts of the PLC Coalition loudly deny that they are in fact a Coalition. It's like the Pope denying he's a Catholic if you ask me.

As I've said before, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. In that context, I'm told that Rene 'Dear Leader' Kinzett, David Phillips, and Darren 'Baby Face' Price have taken to seeing Chris Holley together to talk about the Budget.

If there is no PLC Coalition, why do they need to do so? Such a visit only makes sense if they are working together, but don't trust each other that much...

A budget for all

At Cabinet today the Administration will bring forward proposals that will limit April’s Council Tax increase to an inflation-busting 3.5%. The current RPI is 4.4%.

Their budget includes a suggested £15.5 million extra for front line services. Street cleaning, waste disposal, libraries, new specialist teaching facilities, parks and support for children and families will all receive extra investment.

Top priority for the Administration is cleaning up the City. They
have earmarked an extra £200,000 to fund specialist cleansing
teams who will move from community to community targeting
‘grot’ spots. An extra £67,000 is to be spent on better sweeping
machines that can get into more awkward places.

£2.4 million has been set aside for children with additional learning needs, which includes new specialist teaching facilities. £1.1 million is to be invested in child and family services, including foster care, adoption and parent support, whilst an extra £500,000 has been provided for adult services such as care homes and domicillary care. £45,000 is to be invested in extending library opening hours, whilst school spending has once more been kept higher than Assembly Government guidelines.

For many people the headline Council Tax rate is the most important factor and we are proud that we have managed to invest in services whilst maintaining an average rise of 3.9% over our three budgets. Compare that to Labour, whose average tax increase was 8.66%, a rate achieved whilst simultaneously allowing all of the City's assets to fall into major disrepair. Now that was incompetence.

Wrestling with demons

Is it me or are the Labour Party Spinners over at the Inside Out site getting overly obsessed with Peter Black? In the last few days he is all they seem capable of talking about. Three of their last six posts and constant references in many others all point to a group of people wrestling with their demons.

Peter Black must be very happy that he has caused such anguish amongst his political adversaries.

Judge and jury

It has taken us a few days to get hold of the actual Standards Committee judgement in this referral of Councillor Gethin Evans for leaking information to the press. However, once we had a copy it soon became apparent that Labour were once again spinning a line.

As the Labour spinners well know the allegations against Gethin Evans were a great deal more serious than that he leaked the outcome of the investigation. In fact when the Ombudsman carried out his inquiry, he concluded that there was 'credible prima facie evidence' that Councillor Evans had 'breached paragraph 5(a) of the Code of Conduct' and furthermore that the 'alleged breach was a material one'. What happened next was unprecedented.

The Standards Committee produced a list of people who they considered should have been interviewed in the course of the investigation. The list was so long that it would not have disgraced a proper police inquiry, which is presumably why the Ombudsman did not adopt this course of action in the first place. Nobody is suggesting that there might have been anything like a closing of ranks on the Standards Committee but the sort of issues that were raised were unusual to say the least. The one thing that is not in the decision letter is any views on the motives of the complainant, yet another Labour invention.

Even then Gethin Evans did not get the clean bill of health that Labour are claiming. The allegation was that Evans had committed a breach of the Code by disclosing confidential information to the press on the voting that took place at the Chief Officer Disciplinary Meeting. Their conclusion was that it was probable that there had been a breach of the Code, the same finding as had been reached by the Ombudsman. However, because there would be serious consequences for Gethin Evans if they ruled against him then they decided that a higher level of proof was needed, and so dismissed the charge altogether.

Having made this decision the Standards Committee then tried to cover its tracks. They ruled specifically that their determination 'should not be regarded as justification' for leaking confidential information in the future. They asked that a good practice note be sent to all members of the Council stating that legal advice should be sought in dealing with confidential matters in the future. They also said that it was unacceptable for Councillors to consider that officers can give consent to the release of information from a confidential committee meeting, a specific reference to the defence offered by Gethin Evans to the Ombudsman.

This decision has produced a fascinating response from the Ombudsman himself. He has now written to the Council's Monitoring Officer regarding another complaint made by David Phillips against Councillors Holley, Black and Kinzett. This particular referral also related to an alleged unauthorised disclosure of information and had been referred to the Standards Committee for determination. However the Ombudsman has now rescinded that referral.

Instead, he has decided that in view of the higher level of proof now needed to make such accusations stick there is no point in further considering Phillips' accusations and he has dismissed the complaint altogether. How Phillips will react to this is difficult to predict but we think that he will not be best pleased.

Update: We notice that the Labour spinners continue with their selective readership of the text of the letter to Gethin Evans.

City reaps benefits of growing confidence

That an ice rink is still on the cards for Swansea is a tribute to the new air of confidence that investors now have in the City. Developers are expected to bring firm proposals to the council within two months.

Talks aimed at bringing a rink to the city are still at an early stage 12 months on, but Planet Ice, the company behind the proposals, is still keen to come to the city.

As we have said previously, people everywhere are starting to recognise that Swansea is a place to do business once more. They see the building work going on and they want to have a piece of the action. What a contrast to the barren years under New Labour.

A legacy in the making

Following Insider's post on Labour's Legacy and the Labour spin-site's wholly negative repost we felt it was worthwhile taking note of the glass as half-full for a change.

Our approach to the Council's finances has been one of living within our means. We have sought to do so in the face of severe spending pressures. Last year for example we needed to find an extra £2.5 million in pension fund contributions, £2.5 million for waste disposal, £1.7 million for fuel price increases, £1.9 million for Special Educational Needs and £1.3 million for Children's Services. The Labour Assembly Government also kept back £1.6 million from local schools. Despite that we kept the Council Tax increase at 5% and increased spending on education by 4.4% and social services by 10%.

The average Council Tax increase under this Administration has been 4.25%. That will reduce further when this year's increase is factored in. By contrast, Labour increased Council Tax on average by 8.66%. Labour say we have cut road maintenance and street cleaning. That is not true. We have introduced a multi-million pound four year road and pavement refurbishment programme designed to correct Labour's neglect of this area. We are also investing in street cleansing as will become evident later this month and have doubled recycling rates.

Labour cannot even get their list of spending cuts right. They say we have slashed £118,000 from post-16 school transport but that cut was never made. Instead we consulted on the proposal and agreed to keep the expenditure and the service in the budget in accordance with the response to that consultation. A number of the other so-called cuts listed by Labour are also subject to consultation and more work and may not emerge from that process in the same format, if indeed they emerge at all.

And what about those priorities? E-government costing £98 million over ten years, not the £170 million that Labour claim. A project that will bring clear benefits through a more efficient Council, value-for-money procurement and a contact centre that is still going ahead, despite Labour spin to the contrary, just not with Capgemini.

A partnership with the Labour Assembly Government to invest in public transport, including a new park and ride site in Fforestfach, a dedicated bus lane from the Fabian Way Park and Ride and changes to the City Centre road system so as to accomodate buses, taxis and bicycles, whilst reducing traffic congestion. Plans to build the new bus station that Labour failed to bring to completion if the Labour Transport Minister and local AM, Andrew Davies, approves the bid for funding. We have at least completed the land acquisition that Labour failed to bring to fruition.

The creation of a brand new central library in County Hall to modern standards, whilst at the same time opening up Labour's palace to public use. The changes to Councillors' accomodation by the way were carried out in full consultation with all parties and a number of changes were made as a result. It would be possible to write a book on the shenanigans over the Labour Group room so as to meet the demands of their leader's ego.

The rebuilding of the Leisure Centre, following its closure by Labour; putting in place the City Centre strategic framework; the Economic Strategic framework for the City & County of Swansea; the design and completion of Princess Way; the purchase and demolition of Unifloc to create Museum Green; and additional funding for City Centre core work. (Oxford Street – from Castle Square to Plymouth Street).

New schools at Llwynderw and St Thomas, with plans in place to rebuild Penyrheol; opening a specialist teaching facility at Pontarddulais Comprehensive; combining Bryn Nursery with Townhill School; amalgamations of infant/junior schools – Birchgrove, Dunvant and Gwyrosydd; completion of an early years block at YGG Bryniago; new sports halls at Pentrehafod and Bishopston Schools; new multi-use games areas at Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr and Cefn Hengoed; and Swansea’s first integrated Children’s Centre at Clwyd School. We are also building a a £3 million two-storey maths and science block at Morriston Comprehensive School. Work is on schedule to be finished by September 2007. Next year we are investing over £10 million in schools and have just announced £850,000 to repair the worst of the school buildings left near to collapse by Labour neglect.

There is a lot more including the completion of the fitting out of the Liberty Stadium and ensuring it operates on a sound financial basis, the building of a new library at Killay, a replacement for West Cross House that meets modern requirements and is fit for purpose, the proposed introduction of a street scene programme with extra finance and the expansion of the NEAT scheme, and the first major retail development in the City Centre for 20 years with more announcements to come.

Like Labour before us we have used external consultants and outside legal services but that is the way that all Councils get things done. We have preserved the City's heritage by repairing the mayoral chain and we have done what is necessary to put in place the best possible management of the Council. In the face of these achievements Labour's complaints appear trivial and partisan. They know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Their incompetence left the Council directionless and let local people down. It is this Administration who are putting things right.

A walk in the rain

We were fascinated to see in tonight's Evening Post a report of a visit by Home Office Minister Tony McNulty to Blaenymaes. Mr. McNulty was joined on his walk around the estate by Swansea East MP Sian James, Swansea East AM Val Lloyd and local Councillor, June Burtonshaw.

During his tour he was told by local Councillors about a new sense of optimism and purpose in Blaenymaes and Portmead. In return he told the paper about "the enthusiasm there was from both police and local community leaders in driving crime down and working on a positive way for the area.

"The absolute vibe is that this has been done from the ground up. This has been achieved with the police, so people in Blaenymaes get a real sense of being part of the solution in tackling crime rather than something being done from above."

Val Lloyd said: "The whole community has come together to fight crime in Blaenymaes. Good results in Swansea show that local people are serious about tackling crime and anti-social behaviour, and that partnership working is effective."

Could this be the same community that only a few months ago local Councillors were lambasting as a notorious place, crime ridden and not a place for a children's home? Is this the same place that Ray Welsby described as one of the most notorious areas in Great Britain? I think we should be told.

You would think that these Labour politicians would at least be a little shame-faced at their blatant u-turn. Fortunately for them, the community that the Home Office Minister saw yesterday is the real Blaenymaes and Portmead, not the fictional badlands invented by local Councillors in an attempt to undermine an important Administration initiative. We are sure that local people will not be fooled when it next comes to vote.

Chase our leader

Spinners on the Labour site are full of themselves as usual. All of that extra cash has clearly gone to their head. However before they get too carried away with themselves at the prospect of a leadership crisis within the Administration perhaps they should look to get their own house in order first.

We understand that despite his apparent successes David Phillips is in trouble within his own group. We have heard that many of them are not too impressed at having to vote in Conservatives to Scrutiny Chairs, that they believe that Phillips is too close to 'Dear Leader' Kinzett, and that they are disenchanted with his interminable and ineffective pedantry at Council meetings. There is also division within the Labour Group over the allocation of Special Responsibility Allowances.

A leadership challenge has now been mounted. Whether Phillips survives or not has yet to be seen.

A necessary measure

Following our last post about Labour's legacy, this item in yesterday's Evening Post, highlights the scale of the problem. As part of our commitment to education and to maintaining the City's assets we have found a one-off sum of £850,000 to invest in essential maintenance in the 12 worst school buildings in Swansea.

The Post's editorial is quite right of course, this is far from adequate, however it is the best we can do with the resources we have at the moment. The paper also says that tough decisions will have to be made to secure a long term solution. Those are the sort of decisions that Labour proved they were incapable of taking when they were in office.

In the best interests of our children we are looking to work with parents, teachers and local communities to find answers and to implement them. The danger however is that Labour politicians will pull their usual trick and try to turn the whole process into a political football. If they do that then they will be doing the City a gross misservice.

Update: The Inside Outers have, as usual got the wrong end of the stick. The extra money for schools has not come from the Welsh Assembly Government but from planned capital borrowing for 2007-2008.

Labour's Legacy

Our Labour opponents over at Inside Out are fond of reproducing posts on the old Inside Swansea blog so we thought we would follow suit. There is no special occasion, just that as we approach the budget-setting meeting we believe that it would be helpful if we reminded people of just how big exactly the mess is that Labour left us to sort out.

In particular we continue to be faced with some very difficult decisions by the failure of Labour to invest in the City’s infrastructure on a huge scale. Labour’s legacy is:

* closure of Swansea Leisure Centre-cost £32m
* crumbling schools - cost £80m - £280m
* dangerous street lamps - cost £600,000
* declining City Centre
* a multi-million pound bill to renovate/repair City Centre car parks
* crumbling roads and pavements - cost £35m
* closure of Tir John tip - cost £2.5m extra a year
* pensions fund deficit for Council workers - cost £4m a year.
* crumbling Guildhall - cost £30m

Some sobering thoughts there, particularly in the light of Labour claims that we keep trotting out the Leisure Centre to attack them. Labour's incompetence stretched much further than that.

Labour still in denial!

Well there you have it. The letter that David Phillips says he never saw, or the cat ate, or whatever his excuse is today, in all it's glory.

So much for his impassioned assurances to the Swansea Labour meeting on 30th January that it didn't exist - rather like his impassioned assurances to the same meeting that there is no PLC Coalition with Plaid, and Rene 'Dear Leader' Kinzett's New Model Tories - I suppose that doesn't exist either?

The question remains why did Labour turn the offer down? My view (Phoenix posts passim) is that they arrogantly expected to be back in a matter of weeks, and that such a letter from the upstart Holley and his crew was an insult to the Rightful Rulers of Swansea that did not deserve the courtesy of an acknowledgement, let alone a serious response.

However, one insider has come out and told me that it was the number of special responsibility allowances ...ahem...positions of responsibility available. As there wouldn't be enough for each Labour councillor to have one, some of them were threatening to go independent if they were not among the Chosen Ones. Hence no reply, and no scrutiny roles for Labour. If this is true, then Labour withdrew from the governance of this city because there wasn't enough cash to go round them all.

The resulting paralysis was only broken in the last few weeks when Rene 'Dear Leader' Kinzett managed to persuade David Phillips to grasp the nettle and challenge his internal opposition. After this, there can be little doubt where the real power lies among the PLC Coalition leaders; and it isn't Darren 'Baby Face' Price.

What is interesting, according to my source, is that now there is less money to share out than there was in 2004; (because their Coalition partners have to have their share) the rumblings of dissatisfaction are starting up again. He/she doesn't know whether any of the former Masters of the Universe will 'go independent' this time - but it is being seriously discussed by some. What larks!

That elusive letter

We cannot be responsible of course for Labour's poor filing, their incomplete memory or the inability of their leader to distinguish truth from fiction. However, as copies of the letter that Chris Holley wrote to the Labour whips back in June 2004 is now being widely circulated around the Administration Group and beyond, we are happy to oblige by reproducing it.

It is worth noting of course that when the letter was written David Phillips was not the Labour leader nor was he a whip. Perhaps that accounts for his failure to recall the correspondence. If he had been there then maybe he would have responded to it.

All the evidence however is that Labour only became concerned with the Scrutiny Chairs when an opportunity presented itself to use them to undermine the Administration. If they had any interest in scrutiny then they would have come to meetings over the last three years and actually tried to influence the agenda. That they didn't, speaks volumes.

PLC Coalition follow the cash...sorry... principles.

Well, I hear that the PLC Coalition's principled cash-grab went off almost without a hitch last Thursday.

My spies tell me that procedural chaos was only narrowly averted by Rene 'Dear Leader' Kinzett rushing about telling various of his Coalition members what to do. It seems that the most amusing sight was watching Labour politicians voting Tory, Tory politicians voting Labour, and Plaid voting for both of them. Still, it is heartening to see the different members of the Coalition learning to cooperate - when will we get their first joint policy statements, I wonder?

Now they'll be able to show us that all their yada yada about 'the importance they attach to scrutiny' was genuine by actually turning up for the meetings. The Labour element of the coalition never bothered much before. Perhaps the 'Dear Leader' and 'Baby Face' should have a word with their friend David Phillips?

Still no answer from Coalition leaders to the big questions , like why they are suddenly so convinced of the necessity of their running scrutiny when they either turned it down, (Plaid) or didn't bother to answer the offer letter (Labour) back in 2004. Neither did either party ever ask officially if the offer could be repeated. Almost makes you think that the whole rigmarole that we have gone through in the last weeks was a charade...

Another thing, why do Labour now feel it is so vital for the opposition to run scrutiny? They certainly didn't feel the same way when they were in charge prior to 2004. Then, the Masters of the Universe did not allow the opposition to have any Scrutiny Chairs...though to be fair, they did offer Vice -Chair positions, which some opposition councillors took up at the time.

Funny though, when the Assembly said that Scrutiny Vice-Chairs could get an allowance, Labour snatched them all back, and re-distributed them to their own councillors. A coincidence, I'm sure.

It all goes to reinforce the growing impression that Labour are in it for the cash, Kinzett's New Model Tories for revenge, and Plaid - well, who knows? By the way, is it true that the 'Dear Leader' now has two Chairs? If so, will he give up one of his two allowances?

Cleaning up the City

One of the Council's initiatives to clean up the City has been recognised by the Welsh Assembly Government with a £20,000 grant.

Swansea Council's Neighbourhood Environment Action Team was established only last October and has won plaudits from local residents everywhere it's gone to concentrate on deep cleaning difficult areas around the city and county.

The NEAT team is a joint effort between the authority's social services and environment departments and aims to give work experience and training opportunities to adults with learning disabilities under the supervision of other council staff.

Since October it's worked all over the city and county cleaning up areas that wouldn't otherwise have been reached. They include the riverside walk near Sainsbury in the city centre, Gorseinon, St Thomas and Port Tennant.

The team is tackling areas around the city that would otherwise become targets for fly-tipping or littering. That's good news for the communities which benefit from the clean-up and it's an encouragement to them to continue the good work.

Moving forward

There is yet more evidence in tonight's Evening Post of the way that the Swansea Administration is working with others to change the City for the better.

This story about a £3.5 million scheme to makeover the roads linking The Kingsway and Oxford Street is just one example:

Contractors are currently upgrading Upper Union Street, Portland Street and Park Street. The work includes resurfacing of roads and pavements with similar materials as that used for the refurbishment of The Kingsway. It is expected to be completed by the end of March and be followed by the £3.5 million city centre core retail scheme.

The Assembly- funded scheme is aimed at making the city centre a more vibrant and dynamic place to visit. It will include new street furniture, public art and replacing of roads and pavements.

As Chris Holley says "Enhancing the appearance of the city centre will supplement ongoing projects such as the regeneration of the former David Evans site and will encourage more people to visit Swansea. This will be a boost for local traders and for the local economy."

Rather predictably the Inside Outers seek to denigrate the launch of a new economic strategy, however its importance lies in the way that we are building on what has already been achieved and in the partnerships that we have been continuing to nurture. The Techniums and the Institute of Life Sciences are important Assembly Government and University initiatives that offer the potential of high value jobs and investment to Swansea.

Before they go claiming credit again the Inside Outers might also wish to note that the ILS was conceived and started on our watch but is no more an Administration project than it is Labour's.

Flexible thinking

Reading this article in tonight's Evening Post it is difficult to recognise the can-do Councillor that Robert Francis-Davies used to be. The man who closed Swansea Leisure Centre is now a shadow of his former self. as is evident by the sheer incoherence of his little rant.

He and his fellow Morriston Councillors have been doing their best to stir up opposition in their ward to the street cars, despite the fact that no decision has been taken on the route it will be taking or that all their fears have been dismissed by experts as unfounded. The number of red herrings they have been throwing up can only lead an independent observer to conclude that their motives have more to do with shit-stirring for the sake of it than any genuine concern.

If Robert Francis Davies had actually bothered to try out a bendy bus for himself then he would see that they are more than capable of negotiating the church in the middle of the road and Woodfield Street without any undue disruption. As for Chemical Road, it has never been stated that this is on the planned route. Indeed it is more likely that an alternative way to Morriston Hospital will be used.

A special responsibility

I am grateful to an anonymous e-mail, which was forwarded onto this site, for providing this information.

Throughout the present dispute over chairmanships on the Council one of the constant refrains of the opposition is that the present Administration is only in it for the money. That is far from the truth. Still it is a bit rich given the history of special responsibility allowances in Swansea.

In considering this we need to remember that Councillors' Allowances are set by the Government. In Swansea the Special Responsibility Allowances were set locally in accordance with that guidance, just like every other Council.

In the last full financial year of Swansea's ruling Labour regime, from 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2003, before they lost control - the total spent on Special Responsibility Allowancess was £460,356.34 per. Two years on, for the second full financial year of the Swansea Administration between 1 April 2005 and 31 March 2006, the total claimed in Special Responsibility Allowances was £375,282.25 per annum. A significant drop of nearly 20%, despite claims by Ray 'Ranter' Welsby that we have increased them by the same proportion.

The reason for this is that the Swansea Administration agreed to pay one fifth of their allowances into the street cleansing budget right from the start. The question now is will the Tory, Plaid Cymru, Labour Coalition do the same, or will the cost to taxpayers rocket back up to the previous figure?

Growing confidence

Despite the inevitable scepticism of the Inside Outers, tonight's letter from the previously unknown Community Councillor Gillian Evans does convey an essential truth. When you talk to business people and visitors to Swansea who have no axe to grind, they all have the same story to tell, the City is on the move again.

Councillor Evans says: 'What came across to all present was a general feeling of confidence. This was reflected in discussions with various business leaders who all felt that after years of stagnation under Labour (remember their long-harboured but over-ambitious plans for Castle Quays), the present administration is turning the fortunes of Swansea around.There is a positive buzz about Swansea and its future.' That is the opinion of many other people.

As expected one of Labour's stooges has posted his own comment on the Evening Post site querying her view but all he succeeds in doing is to highlight how things are different. Labour got the Liberty stadium underway but they left it to us to put in a proper business plan and to finish off the job where they had cut corners. SA1 Waterfront is of course an Assembly Government initiative, which we are progresssing in partnership with them, whilst Salubrious Place Phase Two was left to us to bring to completion, a not insignificant achievement.

What 'Malcolm of Morriston' does not comment on is the fact that the present Administration has got the first City Centre shopping development for over two decades underway, that new investment is coming into Swansea to bring existing buildings into full use and despite the difficulties of the implementing the new traffic system, most people acknowledge that it has made a huge difference to City Centre traffic problems. In addition a whole range of new investment opportunities are opening up and a lot of interest being shown in them. A major contrast to the stagnation of the Labour years.

Isn't it about time Labour stopped running Swansea down? Oh, and perhaps they could get a more reliable source as to what goes on in Administration Group meetings as well.

Ticket to ride

Whatever the truth of Ray Welsby's claims about the mass misuse of freebies at Swansea's Liberty Stadium, we could not help but notice that what prompted his complaint was his own inability to put his hands on free tickets. We only have his word as to how exactly he would have distributed those tickets if he had got them.

The other distinctive feature of this so-called scandal is the fact that a detailed protocol for the Liberty Stadium has not been put to council yet because of the reluctance of the Labour Group Leader to agree it. He has said that he is not happy about councillors being involved in ticket allocations. Unfortunately, for David Phillips he is in a minority on this matter within his own group. Councillors of all parties receive tickets for distribution to needy members of their community, but many of these take the Labour whip. Their presence at matches is often much in evidence.

Waiting for the bus

Those who have been around in Swansea for some time will recall the kerfuffle when the Bus Station revamp was first mooted. The then opposition sought to call it in because they were unhappy with certain aspects of the scheme, only to be accused of delaying the project. Labour were planning to have it all done and dusted in time for the 2004 Council elections.

It is a bit of a cheek therefore for the Labour spin site to accuse us of not giving the new bus station sufficient priority when they could not even get it off the ground. Most of the available finance has been used up getting possession of the land. Whether the scheme proceeds now depends entirely on the Labour Transport Minister.

Swansea Council has given the bus station top billing amongst new projects. Labour's rules say that existing schemes must come first. On any fair distribution of money the bid of £15.5 million out of a £125 million budget for Wales' second City would be considered modest. The problem is that Labour have put all their eggs in the Rhondda Fach basket.

Will Andrew Davies let his home City down again? We will have to see.

Coalition Cooperation in Action

I notice that over at Inside Leg, the PLC Coalition (formerly New Labour) spin-site, much is made of 'things that needed to be taken apart' in yesterday's Environment Scrutiny committee. Having made enquiries, perhaps I could 'take apart' the voting for the Chair and Vice-Chair as a service to Plaid, Labour, and Conservative voters who think that these three are still separate entities?

Labour's June Burtonshaw is now Chair, and was voted in by a combination of Labour councillors, Darren 'Baby Face' Price of Plaid Cymru, and re-cycled Tory, Margaret Smith. Then Smith retained the Vice-Chair's post with the support of Labour and Plaid.

So there you have it. The Plaid-Lab-Con Coalition in action. Good to see them getting on so well together. Incidentally, surely it is about time that the PLC came clean and told us who actually leads their Coalition? They must do away with this sham of pretending to have three separate leaders.

Electoral Pact anybody?

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Fireman Phillips

This morning's phone-in on Swansea Sound generated heat from the usual suspects, but for once it also brought two shafts of light.

The first of these came from a more thoughtful than usual Ray Welsby, who at last acknowledged that there is no fourth option to bring Council Housing up to scratch by 2012. This long-awaited admission leaves those opposing stock transfer in a bit of a quandary. Their opposition is now more than ever about political posturing. They have nothing to offer to tenants except false hope.

The second moment to cherish was David Phillips' diatribe on the failings of the Administration. His claim that the Administration are not installing fire alarms into schools because we have no policy was bizarre to say the least. It would also be contrary to building regulations and commonsense.

Still, Phillips' fascination with fire protection measures may well go some way to explain his obsession with the burnt out remains of Penyrheol School. After the fire he made several appearances there, each strangely coincided with visits by the media. It is reputed that he even brought his own hard hat.

Penyrheol School has now been subjected to two serious fires. The first time it burnt down Labour rebuilt it without a sprinkler system. That is not a mistake we will be repeating.

PLC Coalition Principles

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Policy into practise

We note that Labour continue to mock the new road system being installed in Swansea City Centre, but are they really in touch with what voters are thinking?

In this article in yesterday's Evening Post a Kingsway trader is quoted as saying that "The council has done an excellent job of improving the look of the Kingsway and the surrounding area. The flow of traffic has also improved." This appears to be a common view and is one reflected amongst taxi drivers, a normally reliable barometer of public opinion. Labour are living in the past.

The brothers and sisters are also scathing about the time being taken to get the city centre strategy right. Quite why they feel that they have to repeat the cost of this strategy is beyond us. After all it was the previous Labour Administration who commissioned it and it is the Labour Assembly Government who is helping to pay for it.

We have had decades of Labour failure to get things moving in the City Centre, now at last there is some action. Important as the policy framework is, we are not going to sit around waiting for it to be completed. The future prosperity of Swansea is more important than that. Not that we would expect Labour to understand. This Administration has succeeded in getting investors interested again. All Labour can do is sneer from the sidelines.

Jokers

Even by the standards of the Inside Outers the latest speculation on what is going on within the Administration group here, here and here is really scraping the bottom of the barrel. When they do not know what is going on then they make it up.

They are obsessed with the idea that the Administration is being held together by the love of money and cannot even begin to appreciate that there may be other bonds, such as the desire to put right decades of Labour incompetence and its impact on the City.

David Phillips also seems to be under the impression that the Council leadership has agreed to roll over and let him and his Tory allies walk into key positions on the authority. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact the Administration group is united in their obstinacy and are reinforced in their opposition to the process every time David Phillips stands up in Council and speaks. His behaviour last Thursday was nothing short of disgraceful, even going so far as to openly misrepresent advice he had received, as well as the position of the Council Leader.

All of the group meetings we have observed have been unanimous in endorsing the tactics of the so-called 'rebels' and in supporting the Leader in finishing the job he started in July 2004. If Labour think this process is going to end with them walking back into power without having to face the electorate once more then they are very much mistaken.

The Wonderful World of Labour

We all know that the New Labour contingent of the PLC Coalition inhabit a different world to the rest of us; a world where things exist because they say they do. (Or do not exist - like the non-existent scrutiny chair offer letter that Plaid somehow managed to reply to).

The latest example is the way the Inside Leg spinners refuse to accept the truth that money for the city centre roadworks came from the New Labour Assembly Government; and that the grant was approved by a New Labour Minister, and Swansea AM, Andrew Davies. If they don't like the scheme, they should take it up with him.

Colour Blind

It is a well known scientific fact that the most common form of colourblindness comes from the failure to differentiate between red and green. This was confirmed by a Labour activist who decided to drop his party's guard in the letters page of the Evening post with this interesting point of view:

"Members of Plaid Cymru and Labour at least stand for something more than just personal ambition and the pocketing of council allowances; what a pity Plaid didn't take power with Labour in 2004 and save the city and county from the shambles that now passes for local government in County Hall. "

Of course we'd already worked out that Labour were only using the Tories to get themselves back into power but its nice to have it in print all the same.

None the less there should be fun and games in Cockett come 2008.

Hope for City

Tonight's Evening Post editorial has backed up what we have been saying for some time: Swansea City is on the up.

New investment is coming into the City, whilst existing operators are re-positioning their product to take advantage of potential opportunities. Tescos too is preparing new plans for its Oystermouth Road store.

As the Post points out the long awaited development of the former David Evans store is also underway. It will bring new names to the City Centre.

When you add in the boost to the local economy that the new casino will bring, then we can see that the Administration's policies are starting to bear fruit and that the disaster we inherited from Labour is being left far behind.

Economical....

What is it with Labour leaders and the truth?

Despite Lord Blair of Kut-al-Amara's assurances to the contrary to Parliament, there really weren't any weapons of mass destruction waiting to be deployed against British territory in 45 minutes, but Labour took us to war alongside Bush anyway.

On a far less significant scale; despite David Phillips' assurances to the contrary to the last Swansea Labour Party meeting, there really is a letter, addressed to both the Labour and Plaid whips and dated 18th June 2004, offering them chairs of scrutiny committees. Plaid wrote back and declined - so we know the letter exists. No doubt Swansea Labour members will draw their own conclusions.

I'm also told that Phillips assured the meeting that he was not in coalition with Rene 'Dear Leader' Kinzett, and his New Model Tories. This was before he got up to propose his fellow leader for Area 2 Planning Chair last Tuesday. Sorry Councillor Phillips, but if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. And this is a coalition. Again, Swansea Labour members will draw their own conclusions. They'll just have to hope that the voters won't.

Mind you, it's lucky for Labour that they are in coalition with the Tories and Plaid. What is clear is that without Tory backing, Labour would not be mounting this clumsy challenge to get what they were already offered way back in June 2004. This is clearly a marriage made in heaven.

PLC Coalition in trouble already?

Is the PLC Coalition in trouble already? I'm now told that when the Plaid-Labour-Con attempted to unseat Tregoning and Tucker went belly-up on Tuesday, it did so because a significant number of Labour members did not attend. Could it be that there are some Labour members who resented having to vote for a Tory - especially Rene 'Dear Leader' Kinzett - and stayed away accordingly? Can't David Phillips get his members to do what he says? We can be sure that the 'Dear Leader' will be bending Phillips' ear about it. Perhaps they could do a job swap?

Labour's Little Helpers (Plaid) were champing at the bit to vote the Tory Leader in. They, at least, have no concerns about voting Conservative to help Labour.

P.S. It seems ex Dunvant Community Councillor and former suspendee Lis Davies was in the public gallery - no doubt to see the hated Tregoning get his. Will the Coalition's failure to get rid of him mean that she will have second thoughts about joining PLC? I t would be a pity if all Phillip's good work at Planning last week (see Phoenix posts passim) were to come to nothing.