April Council minutes

RESOLVEN COMMUNITY COUNCIL

The Monthly Meeting of the Council was held on Thursday 6^th April 2023 at 6pm at the Community Centre

Present/ Presennol

Mr. T. Jones – Chair/Cadeirydd

Councillors/Cynghorwyr

Mr A. Jones, Mrs J. Llewellyn, Mr N. Francis, Mr. R. Coulter, Mrs R. Parfitt, Mr P. Martin

Clerk/Clerc

Mrs. C. Payne.

County Member/Aelod o’r Cyngor Sir – Not present

29/23 Apologies for Absence/Ymddiheuriadau am absenoldeb

Mr I. Ace, Mr K. Sims. Mr N. Place, Mr P. Thomas

30/23 Declarations of Interest/Datganiad o ddiddordeb personol

Mr N. Place and Mr T. Jones declared an interest in item 24/23

31/23 Minutes of the previous Meeting/Cofnodion y Cyfarfod Diwethaf

The Minutes of the Meeting held on Thursday 2^nd March 2023 were accepted as a true record.

32/23 Clerk’s report and Council Matters Arising/Materion yn codi o’r cofnodion ac adroddiad y Clerc.

The Clerk’s report was presented and approved.
Matters arising:-
Virtual meetings – The Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 requires that all
Community Councils must make and publish arrangements for remote/virtual meetings to enable people to attend from any location. Following discussion, it was agreed to set up the technology via Zoom to facilitate this requirement. When set up details of meetings will be published in due course on the website and Facebook. Anyone wishing to attend and speak at the meeting must inform the Clerk well before the allotted time.

33/23 Coronation mugs etc:

Following discussion, it was agreed to purchase Coronation pencils and stickers for each child at the school.

34/23 Correspondence

Bowls Clubs use of green and facilities
Wayne John NPT (Library) retiring – card sent from Library and us
Coronation Service – Neal Francis will attend.

35/23 Sub-Committee Reports

Parks/Environment/Hall committee – No meeting last month

The state of the bottom of the park was discussed it was agreed to obtain a quote for the clean-up.

Finance Committee. – No meeting last month – The next meeting will be on Thursday 20^th April at 6pm

36/23 Chairman’s Report.

A Report on the NPT PSB meeting held via Teams on 28/3/2

Despite being billed as a hybrid meeting at Neath Civic Centre, the meeting was held via Teams for convenience. Karen Jones the Chief Executive of NPT had tabled that future meeting should be face to face on a biannual basis, with incidental meeting s held online. This was agreed, by the attendees since it was agreed that meeting had become focussed and transactional. With the publishing of the programme for the next five years, scrutiny would need to be more detailed since exciting times lay ahead.

Pobl Group – the representative outlined several developments aimed at producing viable communities, and to this end has built over 1000 homes in NPT .including low cost and sustainable dwellings. An important development were dwellings as “power stations” with both solar and battery storage. Notable developments included those at Alltwen, Ty Mawr in Pontardawe, 68 new homes at Coed D’arcy , Neath Working mens Club with 35 houses in the centre of Neath. These seem to “tick the box”, of the initial aim.

PSB Plan 2023 -2028 – this was adopted and will be published on the 5^{th of} May.

Community Safety Partnership – a report was given regarding combating anti-social behaviour and the emergence of a gang culture.

Partner updates –
a) Celtic Freeport – it was with delight that Karen Jones confirmed the successful bid. Discussions with HM Treasury regarding the working of a tax-free zone and investment would take up to a year, before the initial £25 million was released. However, Allied British Ports had agreed to an investment of half a billion pound in Port Talbot. It was hoped that the facility to build, operate, maintain and dispose of the floating wind turbines would herald a new economic dawn , since the eclipse of the traditional economic base in the area. The growing population and the demand for a new skills base would have several economic multipliers in the local economy. This would need new infrastructure and reversing the economic decline of the past, a turning point.

b) Cost of poverty prevention – a verbal report was given by Gaynor Richards of CVS as to the problems locally of the cost-of-living crisis. Several commentators related tales of cold homes, mould and condensation. The power companies generally were criticised for being inflexible, though “not for profit” Dŵr Cymru had been very proactive in helping residents. A discussion arose regarding whether the PSB should adopt a political stance and write to both Welsh and UK Governments. Some questioned whether public representatives were unaware of this.

Remarkably, NRW took the rather puritan stance that people should “make do with less”, and those targets such as 2030 and 2050 took precedence for the sake of alleviating the environmental crises. This seemed ridiculous, in the face that some residents in the Borough, had resorted to heating their house with a hairdryer and were afraid to turn the heating on. One, must assume that the enviro friendly NRW must live in a parallel universe when a conference on peat bogs trumps shivering children? The next full meeting is on June 27^th.

37/23 Councillors Reports

A report of fallen trees in Nantyglyseid woods has been received.