Cllr Anthony Taylor (Labour, Taibach) has posted on his blog: “Councillors of all parties signed up to support the modernisation of residential care services, clear in the knowledge that radical decisions needed to be made. The next few months is not about ducking the issues but adopting a carefully thought out solution that enables us as a local authority to deliver for the people who need our help most.”

One assumes that Cllr Taylor’s day job of acting as aide to MEP Derek Vaughan has prevented him from keeping in close touch with the discussions among members so far. This member of a non-Labour party is not at all convinced that PFI, the option clearly preferred by the ruling group on the council, is the way forward. It should also be pointed out that full council has not yet endorsed the decision of cabinet on 27th January.

Residents of care homes and their relations will be concerned by Cllr Taylor’s use of the word “modernisation” which has come to mean, in New Labour’s lexicon, the same as the Conservatives’ “rationalisation”: i.e. job cuts, wage cuts and the toleration of  inequality between the sexes.

As I posted earlier,  I accept the need for outside involvement, because of the pressure put on local government finances by central government and the way in which the condition of all but one of the existing care homes has fallen behind the Welsh Assembly Government’s required standard. However, as Liberal Democrat group leader, Cllr Keith Davies, points out, the standards document is dated March 2004. In other words, our council has had nearly ten years to bring our care homes up to standard.

There seems no alternative, given the restrictions on council spending, to involve a partner in the building and running of care homes. Only one of the council’s existing facilities is up to the latest standard, and replacement with fewer, larger, units is the best option. The partner may be a commercial or a not-for-profit organisation. That partner will be chosen with care, having regard to their record.

I have deliberately used the vague term “involve a partner” because there are several options. These are laid out in a consultation paper obtainable here.  The cabinet member for Social Care does have a preferred option, but I was assured that the consultation would be genuine.

One might expect that a Liberal Democrat would be enthusiastic for a scheme which promises to deliver a service more economically than the council could do, but care of the elderly is a sensitive subject. The scope for efficiency savings is narrow, and pressure must inevitably fall on wage costs. For that reason, rigorous standards must be set and monitored.  Director of Social Services, Health & Housing, Tony Clements, has promised that this will be done.

During the Scrutiny hearing, I - along with Labour’s Councillor Scott Jones (Cymmer) - also emphasised the need for good transport links, especially public ones, to the new care homes, seeing as how more old people would be settled a greater distance from their previous neighbourhoods than at present.

Finally, it should be emphasised that, whatever scheme is adopted, no existing home will be closed until a replacement is up and running.

The county borough is looking for people (other than its own staff) to put their web-site through its paces: http://www.neath-porttalbot.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=5443

Apologies by the way for a dearth of posts here over the last few weeks, caused by seasonal illness and then maintenance on the computer hosting “mycouncillor” sites.

The community council is sent a copy of the annual report of the West Glamorgan county archivist. I was lucky enough to be first in the queue to see the 2008-9 report, and fascinating reading it is too.

Most of the features are Swansea-orientated, since that is where the HQ is based, but the Neath Antiquarian Society and the Neath access point (in the Mechanics Institute) get their fair share of coverage. Visitor numbers have increased across West Glamorgan (Port Talbot 22%, Neath 29%, Swansea 32%) in the last year to a new record of 11,080.

An exciting development is West Glamorgan’s trialling in Wales of a software package, ParseCat. This should enable the creation of an online archive down to item level, eventually linked to the all-Wales collection level catalogue.

Other items which caught my eye were the opening up of the Neath Abbey Ironworks archive, the documentation of Neath’s awarding the freedom of the borough to Liberal PM David Lloyd George in 1918, and the acquisition of historic records of Neath Borough Council, Neath Rural District Council and of Dwr-y-Felin school going back to the 1890s. The archive has also been given the vouchers and correspondence of the Vale of Neath Dinas Fire Brick and Cement Company, 1886-1919. I would be interested in any further information on the latter, previously unknown to me.

I shall shortly be discussing the grass-cutting schedule with the council’s neighbourhood people. I assume last year’s service was satisfactory, because I had no complaints about it.

However, please contact me within the next six days, via the panel on the left, or by phone, if you want to raise any matters concerning grass-cutting in Cadoxton.

I hold no brief for Plaid Cymru, certainly not on the national scene. Their performance, in coalition with Labour, in the Welsh Assembly Government more than ever convinces me that my party had a lucky escape in not joining them and the Conservatives after the last Assembly elections. However, I admire some of their local members for their tenacity in seeking to improve local government, efforts which transcend mere party politics.

Such is Linda Ware, a councillor in Cilfrew, chairman of Blaenhonddan’s finance committee. This was set up in the teeth of opposition from Labour and my own doubts, seeing where the suggestion was coming from. However, there is little doubt (except from some diehard Labour quarters - witness Cllr Mike Richards’ blizzard of letters in the local press) that the committee has teased out facts and figures which show where improvements could be made to financial performance and accountability. An article in the Neath Guardian, though regrettably concentrating on the most dramatic conclusions of the finance committee, sets out in black-and-white the background to the economic decisions the community council has had to take, and the probable way forward.

There are comparisons with other community councils. None of the figures are made up; they are all in the public domain; and they are attested by the council clerks. The councils are not all that similar, but examining performance in key areas is enlightening. I would like to think that the article would put past arguments to rest, but there are too many whose attitude is: my mind is made up, please don’t confuse me with the facts.

It’s easy to dwell on the negative (Cllr Ware is particularly concerned that every day that Caewern centre is open, or that some of our below-par children’s playgrounds are in use, the risk increases of an accident which could see us corporately guilty of negligence), but I would like to look forward, too. The community has some excellent halls and centres which could be made more use of. Playgrounds are in good settings, and can be made both safer and more attractive. We need more “marketing” of the former and a rolling programme of improvements for the latter. This is not something which can be done all at once, and there is not enough money for planned improvements in 2009/10, but at least we can set in train for 2010/11 and subsequent years.

There will be a social on 24th February at St Catwg’s church. There is a charge of £4 to cover refreshments etc.

There has been a partial account of Blaenhonddan Council’s decision to cease to operate Caewern community hall. It is unfortunate that neither the Guardian nor the Evening Post were able to send a reporter to the public meeting last Monday at which the issues were addressed. That meeting listened to the protests from the two users of the hall who felt that the six weeks notice given was insufficient for them to make other arrangements, and that, since the council’s accounting year ran until April, the existing precept should take account of running costs until then.

Cllr. Peters (Plaid Cymru) successfully moved suspension of standing orders so that an amendment could be made to the original decision. The hall will now stay open until April. My own view is that the matter of the precept is somewhat irrelevant, and, though December 31st was a tight deadline, a further month should have been sufficient.

Let’s state the facts on which the decision was made, since they rather got lost in the general furore last Monday.

Caewern community centre is less than a kilometre away from a more spacious, purpose-built, 21st-century centre, the Owain Glyndwr.

It requires work to bring it up to modern safety standards. The cost of this work is not yet known, but it will be of the order of thousands of pounds.

In 2007/8, it cost over £1200 per month (in rates, utilities, maintenance, cleaning materials and caretaker wages) to run. The receipts were less than £170 per month on average.

We therefore propose in the short term to close the centre, saving on the running costs and hopefully increasing the revenue of the Owain Glyndwr, which is also running at a loss. We are giving the two groups, who currently use the centre regularly, a few months to decide whether to relocate to the Owain Glyndwr on the same terms, or to make other arrangements.

In the long term, we are looking to give up the lease on the centre to the owners, Neath Port Talbot County Borough. Although we cannot force a break in the contract until 2011, under the terms of the lease, we are seeking to negotiate an end to the lease by mutual agreement.

We accept that the primary purpose of such halls is to provide a service to the community, not to make a profit. However, we must seek to make best use of the council taxpayers’ money while maintaining that service.

The only reason for holding in camera the meeting which decided on the closure was because confidential staff matters were involved.

I am not in the business of closing centres for the sake of it. Each facility must be looked at on a case-by-case basis. This will involve not only economies, but also encouraging their use to maximise their potential.