Rhondda Cynon Taf Council - Leader's Blog

The turn of the year always provides an opportune moment for us to reflect on the progress made and challenges that have presented themselves over the course of the last twelve months. I think it is fair to say that it has been a fairly successful year for the Council as we have continued to deliver improvements across all of our priority areas and made good progress on a number of key infrastructure projects. 

However, with austerity continuing to shape our budgets for the foreseeable future, we are aware that we will need to continue exercising a prudent approach to our financial management.  This approach, combined with a continuously evolving approach to setting the budget for the forthcoming year has certainly served us well.  Over the recent festive period we were able to provide support for Christmas events across our seven town centres, with each respective event receiving positive feedback from the local community; whilst we were also able to provide each principal town with funding to ensure that Christmas lights and decorations could be on display.  Whilst these are seemingly little things that are often taken for granted, it is worth noting that RCT was one of the few Local Authorities able to provide this support and we recognise the importance of ensuring that residents, and particularly children, are able to enjoy the festive atmosphere in their communities.

On New Year’s Eve, between ten and twelve thousand spectators descended on Mountain Ash town for the 60^th anniversary of the Nos Galan Road Races, making it the biggest edition to date.  The Races saw a record 1,750 competitors of all ages and abilities registering to take part, whilst the three Mystery Runners - David Bedford OBE, Sam Warburton OBE and Rhys Jones - made it a truly special occasion that was befitting of the milestone anniversary.  I would like to extend my thanks to all of those involved in the preparation and organisation of the event, particularly to South Wales Police for ensuring that the occasion could be safely enjoyed by all in attendance. 

We anticipate that once again we will have record recycling figures for this Christmas, and I’d like to thank residents for actively participating and ensuring that as much material as possible can be recycled in order to protect our environment.  Finally, I would also like to take this opportunity to wish all residents of RCT and employees of RCT Council a happy and prosperous New Year.