Latest news with #TorfaenBoroughCouncil
South Wales Argus
15-07-2025
- Business
- South Wales Argus
Torfaen council leader: 'We don't own Pontypool town centre'
A high proportion of vacant buildings has been considered as a blight on Pontypool town centre and Torfaen Borough Council does offer grant support to bring them into use. But its leader Anthony Hunt said people often think the local authority owns more buildings in Pontypool than it does. The grade-II listed Pearl House building in the centre of Pontypool has been refurbished as temporary homeless accommodation and is owned by Torfaen council. He was speaking as the council's Labour cabinet approved an asset management strategy for buildings, both in and out of use, it does own and which has identified a maintenance backlog or around £19 million. 'Most capital money has gone to schools in the past 20 years and that has left a backlog there and how do we start to address that and change perceptions?' said Cllr Hunt. 'Sometimes there is a perception that we own far more than we do such as Pontypool town centre, we don't own 95 per cent of Pontypool town centre. It's about not setting unrealistic expectations on buildings owned by other people.' Gareth Beer, the council's head of economy and place, said: 'There is a perception the council owns pretty much everything within any town centre, we don't. Cwmbran being a good example. A disused shop in the centre of Pontypool. 'In Pontypool we're working very closely with the task group that's been established. I think it's really about managing the messaging. The council owns key assets within Pontypool town centre so our investment in those assets is really important in terms of changing hearts and minds. Those are regeneration elements that sit alongside but are beyond the pure asset management approach.' Mr Beer said local communities and businesses need to understand plans for town centres and 'who owns what' and said the council will work with property owners and developers to bring forward regeneration plans. The officer also said the council has now identified around £4m in its budget, including Welsh Government funding for schools, to address maintenance issues. Torfaen council is currently leading an £11m investment in Pontypool, supported by £7m from the UK Government and private finance, to redevelop the public toilets in Hanbury Road into a cafe and revamp the Glantorvaen car park, both of which are council owned buildings. The scheme will also bring the derelict and privately owned St James Church back into use as an events venue. The regeneration project is intended to attract footfall from Pontypool Park into the town centre, much of which is a conservation area, and support a night time economy. The vacant George pub in Pontypool where police raided a cannabis factory on Valentine's Day 2024. The council's agreed assets management strategy will establish a 'corporate landlord' model for the council which will have ownership of all its assets, other than schools, rather than individual service areas. READ MORE: The council owns and manages more than 1,000 assets valued at around £332m and they will now be divided into seven classes. One of those is development and regeneration which are buildings that support economic growth and include Pontypool Indoor Market and Cwmbran's Springboard Innovation Centre. The other categories are operational from which the council and its partners deliver services, education for schools, green spaces including local nature reserves and Cwmbran Boating Lake, community and heritage including libraries, leisure centres and cemeteries and investment which generate income for the council such as industrial units, shops and commercial offices it lets. There will also be a disposal class of buildings that could be sold and data such as around their use and condition will help determine if properties should be considered for disposal.
South Wales Argus
11-07-2025
- Business
- South Wales Argus
Torfaen has highest number of children in care in Wales
At the start of January Torfaen Borough Council had 355 children in its care at a time the projected overspend in its children's services budget was expected to hit £3.7 million by the end of March. The council has made additional funds, from its reserves, available to cover the shortfall but has also since last autumn had a recovery plan to reduce costs in children's care. It finished the financial year with a £3m children's services overspend while the budget for this year is more than £24m and it could have to use £500,000 from the support fund. Councillor Richard Clark the cabinet member responsible described the spending as 'unsustainable' but said changes made as a result of tackling rising costs are also intended to better support children. He said: 'More importantly to me it is giving better chances to those individuals'. He said the numbers in the authority's care have reduced since January and had fallen to 316 but increased by an additional child on Monday while Jason O'Brien, the strategic director for children and family services said the figure on Tuesday, when his report was discussed by the cabinet, was 315. 'Since January our children looked after population has reduced at an accelerated rate and we continue to narrow the gap with the Welsh national average,' said Mr O'Brien. Steps to reduce costs have included establishing an early intervention hub to better support families in need of support and the council has also opened its own small children's home, in partnership with a housing association, with another to open shortly to reduce the cost of residential placements and use of those outside of Torfaen. By the end of June the council had also placed more children with its own in-house foster carers and reduced the number placed with those from more expensive independent fostering agencies. A revamp of staffing structures within children's services is also due to take effect from August 4 and that will base staff around demands on the service rather than location. Torfaen's Labour leader Cllr Anthony Hunt praised the work of the 'necessary confidential but vital' service and said it was 'good to focus on the people and not just the figures'. The Panteg councillor said: 'In the current political climate people say councils should be run more like a business but we're not a business we're a public service and provider of last resort and supporting vulnerable people. The finance works hand in hand with better outcomes for individuals.' He added he was pleased youngsters in the council's care can 'live locally around their other support networks.' Torfaen has the highest rate of children looked after per 100,000 of the population under 18 years in Wales, though the figure has reduced since 2021 when it peaked at 232 per 100,000, an actual figure of 479 children in care. The figure reported to the Welsh Government, in May, was 316 which was 169 children per 100,000 in care while the council has targeted reducing the number of children looked after to 296 for the 2026/27 financial year and it is confident its figures suggest that will be achieved.
South Wales Argus
11-07-2025
- Business
- South Wales Argus
'Pontypool snow line' a barrier to regeneration in the north
Torfaen Borough Council's cabinet has given its blessing to working with neighbouring Blaenau Gwent to appoint a joint development partner to support regeneration and infrastructure projects in both boroughs. Both Labour-led councils share a chief executive and some senior staff and the move has already been supported by Blaenau Gwent's cabinet before it was discussed by counterparts in Torfaen. Torfaen leader Anthony Hunt said he believed a joint partner would aid regeneration in the north of Torfaen as well as Blaenau Gwent. 'We've had some concerns in the past with the 'snow line'. It's difficult to get investment above Pontypool,' said Councillor Hunt who added Torfaen hasn't always had land available 'to attract and retain employment, could this unblock that?' Christina Harrhy, joint director of economy for both councils, said they are 'strategically positioned' with the Heads of the Valleys to the north and M4 to the south. She said: 'In Torfaen we don't have a big, large bank of employment land and when employers want to come into the borough we are finding it quite difficult to locate these companies. 'But, conversely, over in Blaenau Gwent they have a plentiful bank of significant employment sites which are readily available and rather than potentially be losing those companies to elsewhere in Wales, the UK, or even internationally it would be far better to be placing them in Blaenau Gwent.' Ms Harrhy said Torfaen has significant sites for the next 15 years but the 'pipeline' would be boosted for the 'forceable future' over the two boroughs. She also said the 'snow line is very real' but said the economies of scale would lead to a 'different emphasis' in talks with housing developers. She said: 'We are able to look over a much wider land area to overcome some of the financial and commercial aspects to developing north of the county boroughs. Social housing is another area that we are able to look at in a much wider perspective when we are looking over both county boroughs.' Torfaen's cabinet agreed it will enter a partnership with Blaenau Gwent to find a development partner, with no financial commitments at this time, and it will have to agree at a later stage whether to enter a contract likely to be for 10 years.
South Wales Argus
08-07-2025
- Business
- South Wales Argus
Dog grooming and day care business in Talywain approved
Kathryn Davies has run Kabokane K9 Services from a commercial unit previously used for the maintenance and storage of HGVs at her home at Old Station House in Church Road, Talywain, Pontypool. She made a retrospective application to Torfaen Borough Council for permission for the dog grooming and a licensed dog breeding business as well as to cover permission for a 'doggy day care service'. The council's planning department has approved the application which also includes alternations to the existing industrial building used for breeding and the day care business while the grooming service is based in a portable unit on the site which is also the location of the applicant's home. Planning officer Simon Pritchard said the changes to the building would have minimal impact but how the businesses could affect neighbours would also have to be considered with one objection received. His report stated the nearest home is Ms Davies' and others are some distance from the site and given the nature of people dropping off, or collecting, dogs or bringing them for pre-booked grooming the number of vehicle trips isn't considered unacceptable. There were also no objections from the council's highways or environmental health departments but it was noted the day care business will also require licensing. Drop off and collection times will also be controlled by a planning condition. With all three now approved uses combined the maximum number of dogs on site at any one time will be 28. The day care business will have seven kennels limited to a maximum of two dogs in each, but only if they are from the same owner, meaning it could hold up to 14 while the dog breeding business would have a maximum of 10 at one time and the grooming no more than four. Staffing will increase to two full time and one part timer. The earliest drop off for the doggy day care would be 8am and collection would be at the latest at 6pm from Monday through Sunday. The dog grooming would be open 9.30am to 4pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
South Wales Argus
28-06-2025
- General
- South Wales Argus
Photographs save 50cm too tall Griffithstown garden decking
Gareth William Leek also dug out old photographs dating back to August 2017, when the raised wooden platform was constructed, and got a statement from a neighbour to support his claim it had covered part of his garden at St Augustine Road in Griffithstown, Pontypool for more than four years. Mr Leek applied to Torfaen Borough Council for a certificate of lawful development as he said he hadn't realised, in 2017, that decking more than 30cm above ground level would have required planning permission. The council planning department said the 4.84m wide, and 3.82m long, light grey composite decking is 0.83cm from the ground level, meaning it is just over half a metre over the height that requires planning approval. Planning officer Simon Pritchard said the council accepted the evidence put forward by Mr Leek which included a Google Earth aerial photograph from June 2018. The application stated the decking had been completed in October 2017 and the neighbour said it had been in place since at least 2019 when they moved to St Augustine Road. READ MORE: Grandmother ordered to tear down decking Mr Pritchard said the council didn't have any evidence itself, or from anyone else, to contradict the information provided and no reason to dispute the decking hasn't been 'substantially completed for less than four years'. As a result, Mr Pritchard's report stated, the application is now immune from enforcement action and considered lawful and the department has granted the certificate.
