Morgan’s Musings
AS summer draws to a close, as is always the case in the cycle of the local government calendar, our minds focus on the imminent announcement of the Local Government financial settlement in October. In these times of austerity of course the issue of budgets never really leaves the minds of any Council Leader, whatever their political persuasion, in whatever part of Wales. The continued focus we have placed here in RCT on seeking to make efficiencies throughout the financial year, to tackle the huge reductions in funding we have faced over the last five years, is allowing us to target one off funding to invest in infrastructure and regeneration.
While all Leaders are having the same conversations in advance of the settlement being announced, knowing how severely Wales’ budget has been cut by the UK Government, there are few if any Councils in Wales who continue to invest in the way we are; and the difficult decisions we took early on now mean that this Council is best prepared to manage the continued difficulties of austerity directed from London which we anticipate for at least the next four years.
Cabinet agreed last week over half a million pounds of investment in Rhondda Heritage Park to initiate the first phase of key improvements to reestablish this iconic facility as a key tourism attraction. We continue ahead with our investment in Leisure, with Llantwit Fardre the next facility to receive a make-over and new state of the art equipment. Our highways investment is also progressing well with improvements to the Troedyrhiw junction in Mountain Ash, which can be a bottleneck at peak times, being consulted on with residents as the next part of the significant improvements being made to the A4059 corridor.
This is my first opportunity to congratulate all pupils who achieved success in their GCSEs and A-levels last month. RCT has continued to improve above the Welsh average and this progress is testimony not only to the hard work of pupils and teachers but also to the changes we have made over the last decade to the way we deliver and support education in RCT.