Agenda and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

In accordance with the provisions of the Code of Conduct adopted by the City and County of Swansea the following interests were declared:

Councillor Chris Holley declared a personal interest in Minute Item 45.

None.

To receive the minutes of the previous meeting(s) and agree as an accurate record.

Minutes of the previous meeting were agreed.

Questions can be submitted in writing to Scrutiny scrutiny@swansea.gov.uk up until noon on the working day prior to the meeting. Written questions take precedence. Public may attend and ask questions in person if time allows. Questions must relate to items on the open part of the agenda and will be dealt with in a 10 minute period.

There were no public questions received.

Cllr Rob Stewart - Cabinet Member for Economy, Finance and Strategy

Ben Smith – Director of Finance / S.151 Officer

Cllr Rob Stewart and Ben Smith attended and the report which was presented to Council on 7 December was noted.

Cllr Rob Stewart - Cabinet Member for Economy, Finance and Strategy

Ben Smith – Director of Finance / S.151 Officer

Cllr Rob Stewart and Ben Smith attended, and the following was discussed.

·       There are budget monitoring pressures in the current year. The 2^nd Quarter Budget Monitoring report will be presented to Cabinet on 21 December.

·       The Welsh Government budget will be announced next week followed by the Local Government settlement.

·       The Council continue to lobby Welsh Government through the Welsh Local Government Association.

Cllr Cyril Anderson– Cabinet Member Community Services

Chris Howell – Head of Waste, Parks and Cleansing

Matthew Perkins – Group Leader, Waste

Cllr Cyril Anderson and Chris Howell shared the report, the following was noted.

·       In 2022, the Council adopted a new waste strategy setting out a range of principles and actions to achieve the statutory recycling targets set out in Welsh Government plans by 2024/25.

·       In 2022/23 the Council exceeded the current statuary recycling target of 64% by achieving 71.8%. This was an increase of 6.7% on the previous year. This increase was principally due to switching black bag disposal from landfill to energy from waste. Swansea Council is first in the recycling performance league table across Wales.

·       Welsh Local Government Association financial benchmarking from 2021/22 showed Swansea Council to have the lowest net expenditure per household-on-household waste services across Wales.

·       Welsh Government are considering the introduction of several schemes including a deposit return scheme, workplace recycling legislation and extended producer responsibility.

·       Swansea Council are currently trialling reusable containers for cans/glass and paper/cardboard in the St Thomas area which so far has been received positively. If rolled out across Swansea, the cost would be neutral.

Cllr Andrea Lewis – Cabinet Member for Service Transformation

Sarah Lackenby – Head of Digital and Customer Services

Sarah Lackenby attended to share the Councils response to the Audit Wales report. The following was discussed.

·       The report highlights the Audit Wales review of all Council digital strategies across Wales. It looked to seek assurance that digital strategies are delivering well-being objectives in accordance with the Future Generations Act.

·       There was one recommendation for improvement which was to bring any review findings to relevant committees. This does normally occur, but normal process was affected by the pandemic.

The digital strategy is reviewed annually, the Panel requested that this review is also brought to scrutiny.

The work plan was noted.