Against a very difficult background, George Osborne has kept to the coalition agreement. The personal allowance will continue to be raised in 2012/13, though not by as much as we are about to benefit by in 2011/12. Other measures are discussed elsewhere, so I won’t go through the speech in detail, but two developments in […]

The Neath and Swansea Citizens Advice Bureaux, noting the rise in the number of clients bringing in troubles caused by debt, have arranged sessions to help the public at large. A Financial Capability Session is designed to encourage financial planning and budgeting, especially in times of financial hardship or when people experience a change in […]

On Monday morning, those of us who are on the county council’s audit and economic scrutiny committees attended a seminar on treasury management (TM) in local authorities. The speakers were two consultants from Sector, the council’s TM advisors. It was very illuminating, though restricted in time as a result of members’ other commitments that afternoon. […]

The staff and members car parks at the three council centres – Port Talbot, Neath and The Quays – will no longer be free. The forward plan approved by the council last month envisaged car park charges as one measure of cost-saving in these difficult times, and a scheme has now been proposed. Subject to […]

Last Monday, the community council resolved to increase the council tax precept by just under 3%. Although I have campaigned for lower precepts in the past, I think that we should have been more conservative this year, given the level of activity Blaenhonddan community is committed to. We are gambling on no major unforeseen expenditure […]

The Independent today (as part of a report about a favourable outcome for UK investors in Kaupthing) has worrying news about Glitnir Bank, which had its first creditors’ meeting a fortnight ago.  Stephen Jones, the finance director of the Local Government Association (LGA), attempted to have UK councils named as “priority” creditors rather than simply […]

The leader of the council has issued a statement following Wednesday night’s disastrous fire in Aberavon. I note that the official web-site does not report the statement made by Cllr Mike James, the cabinet member for environment and leisure, made in the emotional morning-after, when he implied that there would be a like-for-like rebuild. Perhaps […]

Yesterday, Council heard a presentation from Steve Thomas of the Welsh Local Government Association on the probable Welsh Assembly Government settlement for 2009/10 and the prospects for future years. He described it as a horror story, but also said that the current settlement was “as good as it gets”. The WLGA press release gives the […]

The Finance Meeting scheduled for 14 September 2009 has been cancelled and will now be held on Monday 5 October 2009.

I couldn’t resist linking to this vintage Pathé 1945 general election short, even though it has no local interest (apart from the Welsh dragon flag in the background!). It is of Sir Archibald Sinclair, the Liberal leader in 1945, reminding the voters of the progressive policies which the Liberal Party had introduced – the secret […]