RESIDENTS of two Gwent boroughs are being urged to get involved in talks about overhauling how their councils deliver services.
Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen councils have already committed to working closer together and share a chief executive and some senior managers but both also intend changing the way they work with communities.
Both are launching what has been called “The Deal” intended as contracts setting out what is expected from the council and services or facilities that could be run or managed by local groups or volunteers.
That could involve devolving budgets and decision-making and allowing community groups to decide how and where money, beginning in the 2026/27 financial year, is spent.
Identical surveys have been published on the websites of both Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent councils and residents are also being encouraged to register to take part in a citizen’s assembly process that will further discuss how each deal will work.
Residents will be selected by what the councils call a “random, representative process to ensure the assembly reflects the diversity” of the community with each assembly due to hold three sessions in January and February.
Torfaen councillors were previously told 40 residents will be selected in each borough and they will be paid for taking part. Payment is usually seen as important to ensure people on lower incomes aren’t excluded.
The surveys ask respondents to confirm if they are a resident, councillor or staff member or work for a partner body and their nearest town or village in their borough.
Respondents are asked to describe what is good about where they live, what could be better in their community and what they could do to improve where they live and thier community.
Other questions also emphasis what residents can do asking what changes they would make and would they be prepared to “make these changes a reality” as well as one activity they could get “more involved” in delivering “alongside the council”.
The surveys also ask what the council could do to bring about “positive change in your community?”
Blaenau Gwent council leader Steve Thomas said the plan is a response to public spending cuts that have reduced the amount of money available to local authorities.
The Labour councillor said: “We need a Deal because since 2010, councils in Wales have lost significant core funding and at the same time demand for critical services has surged. To balance budgets councils have been forced to raise income and cut many universal and community services, and this approach simply cannot go on.”
His Labour counterpart in Torfaen, Anthony Hunt, said the intention is to focus on community services which can help prevent people having to rely on statutory services, such as social care councils have to provide, but which have fallen victim to cost cutting.
‘Plug the gap’
Cllr Hunt said: “To plug the gap, councils have frequently cut wider discretionary services often the very things that prevent poor health and reduce long-term demand.
“When those services decline, health inequalities deepen and demand for acute services rises as a consequence.”
Joint chief executive Stephen Vickers said the councils want to move away from the tradtional “top-down service delivery”.
He said: “It’s about developing a new relationship with residents and partners that builds on the strengths and capacity in communities and is a genuine commitment to working together to design and deliver community services and facilities.”
Five areas have been identified as the basis for The Deal. ‘Early Years’; ‘Lifelong Learning’; ‘Wellbeing Through Community Leadership’ with local people leading projects to improve “health and happiness”; ‘Thriving Economy and Vibrant Places’ and ‘Empowered Communities – Shared Power and Success’, which is residents setting priorities and working with others on solutions.
The council is writing to residents with details on how to register an interest, before November 30, on taking part in the assemblies and people are also asked to visit their council’s website to take the survey.