RESOLVEN COMMUNITY COUNCIL
The Monthly Meeting of the Council was held on Thursday 9th May 2024 at 6pm at the Community Centre
Present/ Presennol
Mr. N. Francis – Chair/Cadeirydd
Councillors/Cynghorwy
Mr A. Jones, Mr T. Jones, Mr R. Coulter, Mrs R. Parfitt, Mr L. Whomes, Mr Peter Thomas
Clerk/Clerc
Mrs. C. Payne.
County Member/Aelod o’r Cyngor Sir – Not present
37/24 Apologies for Absence/Ymddiheuriadau am absenoldeb
, Mr N. Place, Mr K. Sims, Mr P. Martin, Mrs J. Llewellyn,
38/24 Declarations of Interest/Datganiad o ddiddordeb personol
None
39/24 Minutes of the previous Meeting/Cofnodion y Cyfarfod Diwethaf
The Minutes of the Meeting held on Thursday 4th April 2024 were accepted as a true record.
40/24 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, there were no matters arising.
41/24 Approve the annual return
The Annual Return which was previously circulated was presented and approved, this will now go to the internal auditor and then onto the external auditor.
42/24 Consider the rental of the attic to Ty Banc Canal Group
The Ty Bank Canal group has requested to rent our attic office space and this agreed subject to terms and conditions.
43/44 Correspondence
Consultation on the NPT Local Authority and Third Sector Compact.
Welsh Government Community Facilities Programme – Meet the Funder.
Local Councils set new standards across Wales!
OVW New model contract of employment.
OVW preparation of annual reports.
NPT survey on behalf of standards committee.
44/24 Sub-Committee Reports
Parks Committee – There was no parks meeting this month due to members holding a MUGA meeting.
Planning app. P2024/0222 – 24 Ynys Fawr Avenue, Resolven, Neath. SA11 4LT.
Rear ground floor bedroom extension.
No objections recorded
Finance Committee – There was no finance meeting April the next meeting will be in June
45/24 Chairman’s Report –
The Chair thanked the outgoing Chair for all his hard work over the year.
The Chair was privileged to attend the Kings Garden Party at Buckingham Palace on the
8th May and had the pleasure of meeting and talking with the King who expressed a great fondness for Wales.
46/24 Councillors Report
A report on the meeting of Neath Port Talbot PSB held at the Civic Centre Port Talbot 30/4/24
The meeting was fairly well attended, though it was noticeable that most were online.
- Children and Young People’s Plan by NPT – this created the impression that life was more difficult for young people today, rather than that they face different challenges and are perhaps less resilient. I would contend that ‘young’ should not extend to 25, when 55 years ago people were full time in the world of work at 15 if they wished.
- Local Flooding – there was little new in this rather puerile report that was not already on the news. It is a great concern to me that NRW refuse to answer technical questions or obfuscate with evasion. It is perfectly reasonable, to ask what the effect of building huge windfarms has on local drainage? Or why was data cherry picked for extreme examples, such as the river Clydach which has been artificially constrained in a flume and the A465 and therefore gives an extreme hydrograph during flooding.
- TATA – there was nothing positive in the report on Margam. With both blast furnaces scheduled to close between June and September. This would result in 2,800 redundancies and thousands more in the supply chain. In addition, the imminent general election would result in a purdah period of 6 weeks and a delay in any decisions on the Freeport.
- Funding Cuts Police – this was a mixed report, in that the number of PCSOs would be cut from 130 to 30, and this would be achieved by natural wastage. More positively, South Wales Police will continue a bespoke Schools programme, retain the officers and work more closely with heads regarding local priorities.
- False Fire Reports – alarmingly the Fire Service will not react to false alarms with certain exceptions such as schools and prisons. 99% of shop alarms go off accidentally and therefore do not merit a full scale response. One wonders as to the sagacity of this decision.
- Reports from partners on the implementation of the legislation – 4 reports were received, though surely this should be on a five year basis?
- Annual Report – this would be ready by July.
Trefor Jones.
No other issues were raised.