Councillor Margaret Alexander

Leader

Councillor Neil Moore

Deputy Leader

Councillor Rob Curtis

Cabinet Member for Visible & Building Services

Councillor Chris Williams

Cabinet Member for Planning & Transportation

Councillor Margaret Randall

Cabinet Member for Human Resources & Equalities

Councillor Nigel Gibbs

Cabinet Member for Education & Lifelong Learning

Councillor Stuart Egan

Cabinet Member for Social & Care Services

Councillor Margaret Wilkinson

Cabinet Member for Housing & Community Safety

Councillor Gwyn John

Cabinet Member for Tourism & Leisure

Councillor Val Hartrey

Cabinet Member for Legal and Public Protection.

Councillor Clive Williams

Mayor

Question

Answer

The traffic calming makes it very difficult to get out of Dinas Powys Village. I have to leave before 7:45am or wait until after 9:00am. What improvements are being made the other end as most of the traffic comes from Barry.

Cllr. Williams. We are working hard to get a Dinas Powys bypass which has been muted for the last 70 years or so. This scheme is slowly moving up the priority list.  The top priority at present are the links to Cardiff Airport. The Welsh Assembly are now seriously looking at the bypass. I personally would like to see a cycle path from the roundabout at Dinas and Barry to the Merry Harriers. 

Cllr. Moore. We keep on making the bid for the bypass scheme but residents should know that the funding must come from the central pot and is not something that the Council could not afford to fund. We will keep on trying.

Rob Thomas. There is some news regarding this issue. The good news for the Dinas Powys bypass is the schemes are now prioritised on a regional basis through the South East Wales Transport Alliance (SEWTA). Funding decisions are reliant on the schemes making it through the regional process. There is currently a shortlist of schemes across S.E Wales and the bypass is on this list for initial assessment. This is the same process that we used to get the Vale of Glamorgan Railway line opened.

The wider highway links between the Airport, M4 and Barry / St Athan area is currently being assessed and we have been able to influence their research to look at the access issue of Barry-Dinas and Cardiff.

There is a developer consortium currently looking at Barry Waterfront that as part of their initial work need to assess the traffic implications of traffic issues through the area.

My concern is the wider highway links after you get passed the Merry Marriers and into Cardiff – what then?  The peripheral links all around Cardiff need to be improved and completed. It will be difficult to travel around the Vale not just Dinas Powys even if the bypass is built.

Rob has primarily answered my question.

There is a feeling that Cardiff City Council won’t work together irrespective of our wishes or concerns. It’s time that WAG took this on and arbitrate between Councils.

Rob Thomas. We have been able to get the consultants to increase the scope of the research.  The completion of the Cardiff peripheral roads are also on the list that the Dinas Bypass in on so both roads could be in completion over the next few years. The point is well made and transport issues know no boundaries. It is neither a Vale problem nor indeed a Cardiff problem it’s more of a regional problem. It is a difficult issue and Council’s have to work together and key issues taken Nationally as Cardiff is a Capital City. We will continue to raise the priority for our schemes at the regional level.

Cllr. Moore. It is a particularly good point. We try to encourage them to look at our concerns and is a reason why the regional Transport Plan has been developed. We will keep plugging away.

Dinas Powys has practically become gridlocked in the morning on the main Rd back to the Station and from the Penyturpike back through the Village. Because of the traffic other arterial road are being congested by motorists trying their luck through the smaller road to get on the main road slightly further up. Everything is completely blocked at present so what are we to do in the meantime until the bypass is built if ever.

Have we looked at the traffic lights sequences at the Merry Harriers. A priority to Penarth traffic at the lights.

There has been a massive increase in housing development in Barry but no provision for extra traffic.

Cllr. Williams. We all know that traffic and parking is a universal problem around the Vale. We can all do are little bit to alleviate the traffic in the area. I saw a recent initiative in Marlow where all parents in the school were asked to refrain from driving their children to school for a week. As a Governor of the Murch School in Dinas I would like to see us do it there as well. The traffic lights at Cogan are controlled by Cardiff.

Cllr Moore. We look at the signal route at the Merry Harriers because this set is controlled by us. I agree with the Member to encourage parents to walk to school and use public transport. It is a battle and we take your point forward.

Congestion not helped by old roads and old routes bringing traffic from large developments.

The residents were considerably alarmed by a Plaid Cymru news letter that spoke of the many thousands of houses that were to be built in Dinas Powys.

Cllr. C. Williams. I am quite happy to defends anything printed in ‘The Voice’ newsletter and certainly do not recall thousands of houses being built around Dinas Powys. This matter will all be considered via the Local Development Plan (LDP).

Cllr Moore. I am not aware of any housing development for Dinas Powys. Part of the LDP process consultation does take place for Candidate Sites around the Vale and anybody can suggest this.

Rob Thomas. The process is quite straight forward. As part of the LDP we have a plan that takes us up to 2011 which allocates certain sites for development. We are already working on our next plan for 2026 and the regulations laid down by WAG acquires us to ask for expressions of interest from developers, land owners and house owners or any party that feels they have interest in certain sites. I can reassure everybody that we have not received any form of consideration as yet. The next stage of the development plan will take place around Autumn of the year and subject to wide consultation with residents across the Vale. with residents and Town & Community Councils.  There have been individually who have made a bid for these sites but no consideration has been given to these sites. We have a very tough job over the next 9 months or so to look at all these sites if any have merit in their proposals.

I accept everything you said but for the people that read the leaflet were very sad and upset. It appeared to be a statement of facts.

Cllr. Moor. I think you have made a valuable point but the officer has answered comprehensively and concur with his comments. Rest assured we will monitor the LDP stages very closely and make sure that there is plenty of consultation.

Those of use who are retired do not have the same problems alluded to earlier. My concern is the large vehicles like buses and lorries that appear in and around the smaller routes in Dinas. Particularly the buses that are too big for the roads. Can I ask for a degree of widening at Long Meadow Drive.

Cllr R. Curtis. We will get an engineer out to this site. Can you please use the form provided to fill out the specifics and we will get back to you.

Cllr. Williams. It was highlighted by us two or three years ago. We will consider the widening of the road at this point.

There are no traffic wardens in Dinas Powys and cars park on the double yellow lines by the Health Centre.

PC.  The point is well made, and rest firmly with the police. I will take your comments and details and try to help resolve the issue.

I travel to Barry and 90% of car use is single occupancy. Does the Council have a policy?

We do have a policy and actively encourage car sharing schemes through our employees.

Cars parking at the bottom of Highwalls Ave were the bus spot is.

Cllr. Moore. Please fill out the specifics on the form and submit it, We will investigate the matter.

Social Services can’t cope with the issues that face us in the vale. 70% to 80% of cases considered in the Magistrates Court are drink or drug problems. What can we do to stop the use of these substances; can you provide me with an update please?

Cllr. Moore. The Cabinet member for Social Services isn’t here tonight but the Director is Phil Evans: The Council’s approach has two key elements.  1) It receives funding from central government to run the Youth Offending Service (YOS).  The budget for the service has been maintained despite financial pressures and there is considerable work done with children and young people who commit offences to tackle any problems which might cause them to re-offend, including substance misuse.  One of the workers in the YOS specialises full time in this area of work as well as encouraging young people to use other facilities that offer more intensive help of this kind.  2) The YOS is developing more preventive services for those at risk and this approach will supplement the work which the Council already sponsors, for people of all ages, through the Community Safety Partnership.  Although much remains to be done, partnerships with voluntary organisations and with colleagues in health are delivering improved services.

Can I have your assurances that the elderly will be looked after. We have an aging population

Cllr. Moore. We are aware of the aging population. We are working with the care Homes and not putting any less in the pot for adult services and we will not see it slide away.

In the last 7 years my Council Tax has gone up massively. I am curious to know where the money is going.  Focusing purely on the vale it has increased 2 ¾ times than a number of years ago. Why am I paying so much more for services that you are struggling to deliver?

Cllr. Moore. ere is a very simple explanation for this question. After the reorganisation at the local authority level, Cardiff were given 72% of the budget and the vale picked up just 28%. Consequently we started from the lowest level of funding. There was no consideration for public service.  S. Glamorgan decided how the money would be divided and consequently Cardiff had the lions share. There was no consideration of the actual cost for providing public services. For example. We received 28% of the budget for highways and 55% of the network. This is how unfair our level of funding has been and we continually play catch up. We receive funding from 3 means.

1. Rate support grant
2. Share of Non Domestic Rates
3. Council tax.

We have had to try and claw this back and reduce the funding gap. Council Tax is capped however.

We are about 1 Million short on education. When we came into power we inherited a deficit for Social Services that we are trying to redress also. There is a delicate financial balance to address.

The roads are lousy albeit the services provided by the Council we are generally satisfied with. I do not get value for money regarding the state of the roads and Policing the area. The fact that you are doing your best isn’t good enough.

Cllr. Moore. Policing is not our funding and is a matter for them to answer. We have to prioritise the many services that we provide. We are trying very hared to provide the quality of services that you require baring in mind the funding gaps in education and Social Services.

I know the Vale has been playing catch-up. I want to congratulate the Vale on the work they have done on litter and recycling in Dinas Powys and also I would like to congratulate the Vale for the new appointment for the Director of Social Services. What is he going to do to liaise with Voluntary Organisations and a little money spent on these would help the Vale greatly.

Cllr. Moore. We totally agree with you.  Cllr. Egan would concur with your views. Voluntary Organisations can often do better than the Vale for the things that we can’t do or provide. They are a very important aspect of the community and play a major role.

Cllr R. Curtis. Thank you for your comments on recycling, we are one of the best in Wales and it is down to you – the residents. We are better than Cardiff but we will be driving them up even further for the sake of the environment.

Excellent Train Service 1^st class. Free passes to pensioners on the buses why not on trains. More cars off the road people should use it more. What about nominal fares to introduce people to public transport.

Cllr. C. Williams

Excellent idea and one we should follow up.

Cllr. Moore. It is something that the welsh Assembly has been looking at, and something that we will look at with SEWTA

The draft LDP is a massive document would it be possible to have an executive summary of it. It is very difficult to read. Candidate sites – how do we stop them getting onto the draft plan.

Cllr. C. Williams. We will look at the matter.

Cllr. Moore. An executive summary would be a good idea however the reason it is so thick is because we are bound be the guidelines on the content.

Rob Thomas. We have a Unitary Development Plan and the LDP is a substantially different process, there are 6 or 7 documents within that bundle. One of which is a summary of the options 8 pages long. Planning is a legal process and very much guided by the regulations. If we fall foul of the regulations we get legally challenged on it. I take your point that the vast majority of the document is highly technical. We looked at 5 options which increased to 8 following public consultation and decided to run with one of the options.

The summary page attempted to surmise the chosen option and why we chose it. It is on the website and send copies via cd in the interest of the environment.

How are the pot holes repaired. They appear to only fix the hole at not outside the area. Consequently the hole appears the next day. Who is supervising the job that they do for you?

Cllr. R. Curtis. Can I refer you to Miles Punter

Cllr. Moore. If the contractor isn’t doing the job properly they will be asked back and do the job free.

Miles Punter. We have an intervention level between the upper surface and the bottom of the hole. We have two types of repair. 1. is fill the hole in and 2. Digging up the outside edge and the inspector will recommend which type of repair we should take. If you find that they come back we do not pay. If you have specifics please write them down and we will investigate further.

About 2-3 years ago we had a costly new road surface from Penyturnpike to Leckwith. Within months these circles appeared and the road dug up again.

Miles Punter. If the highway we put down hasn’t stuck perhaps. There are faults with resurfaced areas on occasion. If you give me the specifics I will get back to you.

Council Tax – there have been several changes to the formula in recent years with one major change by the Welsh Assembly Government which took money away from roads and downgraded the assessment in favour of depravation. Have these funding arrangements worked against or in favour of the Vale of Glamorgan and if against what representations have been made to WAG.

How have the levels of reserves over the years changed?

Cllr. Moore.

Some of the questions you raised were during a time when your party were in the administration for the Vale and you didn’t raise them then. However, there has been changes in the Rate Support Grant and this will have an affect on any Council. You are right about the depravation grants because this area doesn’t have a high depravation grant allocation. It would probably be better to ask your colleagues if they moved the money away from the services you talked about because they were in control at the time. The money that comes into the Council is dealt with on a priority basis. Sometimes the money is vired to different areas.

Reserves are built up by Councils in profitable times or when the Council decided not to spend for various reasons, or windfalls from the sale of land. Due to this the reserves are prone to fluctuate. Most of the reserves are set aside for projects for instance, or provisions when times of overspend. I will give you an example if you want: over the last 4 years the previous administration dipped into about 10 Million of the reserves due to the overspending in Social Services. We came in on the 6 December 2006 because of this matter and have implemented a recovery plan. We have asked Social Services to pull there spending back by 2 Million which is on track. We do not want to prop up services that are not being managed properly. This may not have been the answer you wanted but nevertheless the one that you got.

I live in Leckwith and we have a major problem with fly tipping. What are the Council doing to stop the problem.

CCTV cameras in the bushes by the lay-by

Cllr R. Curtis. This has to do with enforcement. The blight of fly tipping, there is no excuse for it. We operate a free collection service for domestic properties. This may possibly come from businesses in Cardiff.  We do have an active programme to try and catch these people. I ask all residents to phone up the council when any incidences occur. We need to have eyes and ears throughout this county to help us control this matter.

Cllr. Moore.

I know of the areas you talk about and these areas are known to us. We look for evidence at these sites.

We will have to take this matter on board.

Fly tipping in the back of Bowval lane in Cogan. I have seen people dumping their rubbish there repeatedly. I have been told that it is not Council land. It is private land.

Cllr. Moore. We do have a problem enforcing matters on private land. We would firstly need to contact the land owner to remove the rubbish. For health reasons it is possible, depending on the type of materials, to remove on Health and safety grounds. The responsibility is with the land owner unfortunately.