Cabinet to hear outcome of Fit for the Future consultation

Bridgend County Borough Council’s Cabinet is set to discuss the outcome of the Fit for the Future consultation, which asked residents to share their views about how they think the council should shape its services, at a meeting next week.

The consultation was carried out over an eight-week period and covered a range of issues, including the council’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, business and the economy, health and wellbeing, customer access to civic offices, digitalisation and council tax levels.

Overall, respondents said the council had performed well during the Covid-19 pandemic and when asked which maintained services should be a priority for the future, they said general waste and recycling collections, followed by street lighting and then domestic abuse support.

Respondents said the services they had missed most during lockdown were community recycling centres, followed by gyms and swimming pools and then parks and playing fields. The majority said council staff working from home should be adopted as an approach for the future.

During the recovery from the pandemic, respondents said support for older people, ensuring homeless people are kept safe, food poverty, council tax support for residents who had difficulty paying as a direct result of the pandemic, and support from community organisations were important or very important.

The majority of respondents said they had not missed being able to access the Civic Offices during their closure, with most saying they had accessed services through the council’s website, followed by telephone call and then email. Most did not think it should be a priority to reopen offices but said when they do, an appointment-based system should be introduced.

The majority of respondents said when Civic Offices reopen they will continue to access services online, and a further 20% said they always preferred to access services online.

When asked their views on setting council tax for 2021-22, 37% were prepared to increase it by 4.5% to help protect the most important services where possible, followed by 36% of respondents who said to keep it the same, which would result in a reduction in the level of services provided. This was followed by 19% of respondents who were prepared to increase council tax by 6% to protect more services and then 8% of respondents who were prepared to pay as much as is needed to maintain all council services at existing levels (16% increase).

When asked what the council’s long-term priorities for the future should be, respondents selected making in-house efficiencies, followed by focussing on services that benefit everyone in the borough and then encouraging citizens to take more responsibility.

During the pandemic recovery, respondents most commonly chose care for older people, followed by schools and then recycling and waste as the three services the council should prioritise.

In response to the lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic that should be considered when setting medium and long-term funding priorities, respondents most commonly stated the council should have an emergency fund, not waste money and make internal savings. This was followed by the need to have a caring society, support social services and vulnerable people, and then for the council to plan and prepare for the future and be adaptable.

Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the response to the consultation demonstrated a significant decrease on previous years, with engagement being focussed online rather than face-to-face interactions and events within the community. A total of 1,421 survey responses were received, a drop of 58% on last year’s survey completions.

There were also interactions at online events and meetings, and through social media.

• The Cabinet will discuss the consultation results at its meeting at 2.30pm on Tuesday 19 January.