In my second year as the Chair of Llanrhian Community Council, I’m pleased to produce a short report highlighting some of our activities over the past municipal year.
Town and Community Councils are set up by statute and form the most local tier of democratic representation. Run by local residents to act on behalf of its area, Community Councils are comprised of people who care about their community and want to make it a better place to live.
As well as representing the community to the local authority, Community Councils can facilitate a wide range of activities which promote the well-being of their communities. They can bring local people together to help make things happen, and they can advise, petition, influence and advocate numerous causes and cases of concern on behalf of local communities.
Despite Llanrhian Community Council being one of the smaller councils in Pembrokeshire, I think that once again our combined efforts mean that we have had a positive impact on the communities that we represent, which this year have included the following:
The playpark in Trefin. We initiated this project just before the first national lockdown with a community engagement day in March 2020, and in collaboration with Gwelliant Trefin Improvement (GTI) in 2021-22, we saw phase one commence which included landscaping of the old bowls section, as well as a volunteer day to garden, paint and tidy the area.
The work continued this year with a number of further volunteer days organised by Llanrhian Community Council; hedge and shrub planting with Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority; the venue being made available for community events; and we have recently been successful in applying for grant funding of around £25,000 to enable the Pavilion to have essential repairs carried out, including a new roof, windows and doors. This work is scheduled to commence in October 2023 and we hope will encourage further use of this community venue.
Cefn Gallod Residential Development. At the time of writing last year’s report, a legal challenge had been submitted to challenge the decision ofPembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority to approve a contentious planning application that will have a significant impact on the amenity of residents living in and near Cefn Gallod, Trefin. We were subsequently successful in getting the application back to the planning committee in July 2022, but the final decision of the committee, by one vote, was to approve the planning application. Llanrhian Community Council continues to keep a watching brief on this planning application, commenting most recently on the sustainable drainage plans that have been submitted by the developers.
We continue to review all planning applications that apply to the area as is our statutory responsibility.
Llanrhian Connected Community project. Predominately funded by Pembrokeshire County Council’s ‘Enhancing Pembrokeshire’ grant fund, Llanrhian Community Council has also contributed financially to this project working to create a stronger and more resilient local community across the Llanrhian ward. In 2022-23 our two part-time ‘Community Link Officers’ continued the work to help support local community groups and help people feel more connected to our area. This year a number of events have been carried out including a cost-of-living event, and more recently helping to bring back the ‘community lunch’ which was held in Mathry. The team have also worked hard on communications with the monthly events e-bulletin, and of course bringing back Llais Rhian, our community magazine, in an updated format.
Llanrhian Community Council will part fund the project for a further year, as we have just been successful in receiving around £13,000 in grant funding to continue the Connected Community project, which will also include a further two editions of Llais Rhian.
Representation to Dwr Cymru Welsh Water. Acting upon concerns informed by data, we have actively engaged with representatives from Dwr Cymru Welsh Water to gain a better understanding of sewage discharges at Trefin, Porthgain and St Nicholas waste water treatment works. At the time of writing, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water have positively engaged with us and have made improvements to the St Nicholas site and have added Trefin to their SOAF (Storm Overflow Assessment Framework) programme. A site visit to Porthgain is scheduled for May 2023.
Housing needs. We have engaged PLANED to help design, deliver and collate a housing needs assessment survey to be distributed across the entire Llanrhian Ward (including the communities of Mathry and Pencaer) to help identify local and specific housing needs for the future. This is a first step in creating a community led housing initiative.
Communications. We are active on social media platforms including our Facebook page and Twitter account, and this year added Instagram to our communication channels. We regularly get good engagement and reach by sharing local stories and snippets, and of course use notice boards for those who might not be on-line and who prefer more traditional methods of keeping up to speed. The Connected Community e-bulletin is growing with nearly 150 subscribers getting a monthly direct email informing them of what’s on.
Finance. The Community Council is funded through a precept, which has historically been very low, and has limited our financial ability to fund local causes. This year we have raised the precept from £6,000 to £10,000 and have started a ‘reserve’ account to provide a buffer if needed. With our existing activities and ambitions, and recognition of wider challenges (such as considering managing the public toilets at Porthgain), we need to make sure that we have sufficient funds so this was an important step to make.
In other areas, we continue to manage the public toilet in Trefin with a local resident being paid for this work, we continue to manage a number of defibrillators across the area, and also put on a defibrillator training course for local residents. We continue to operate a policy of funding local causes where appropriate. We have also had to deal with a particularly contentious local land issue, with some strong feelings being made known by local residents, and the situation eventually being resolved by Pembrokeshire County Council’s Common Land Officer.
This year we welcomed Priscilla Wilde and Paul Niedzwiedzki as new Community Councillors and they have settled in well and make a valuable contribution. For a small council I think we are active and engaged, and the voluntary contribution that our councillors make does not go unnoticed.
I’d like to thank them all as I feel supported in my role as Chair, underpinned by the consistently excellent work of our Clerk, Vanessa Walker.
Diolch,
Cllr Neil Prior
County Councillor Neil Prior 