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Council tenants could face two-year wait for repairs

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COUNCIL TENANTS waiting for maintenance to be done on their homes could face a delay of up to two years according to council officers.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Pembrokeshire County Council’s Housing team has prioritised emergency works and some tenants have become unhappy at the amount of time being taken.

Now, as the lockdown is being eased once again, the council are looking at clearing what has been described as a ‘huge backlog of maintenance’.

At Thursday’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee, councillors heard an update on housing building repairs and maintenance.

Peter Nicholas, Operations manager, said that once the floodgates open, it could be up to two years before they get on top of the backlog of work.

The council is looking at ways of improving this and will be looking to take on more contractors in the summer.

Cllr Michelle Bateman, Cabinet member for Housing, said that they hadn’t considered they would still be in the same position a year after the start of the pandemic and said its impact on housing had been ‘huge’.

She praised the housing team for their hard work in turning around a number of properties for use by homeless people and the building maintenance team for their work in getting schools ready.

The Council’s Chief Housing Officer, Gaynor Toft, said that there would be a ‘significant period of catch up’ and that they would not be able to respond to everybody as they would like. She pleaded with people who are waiting for work to be done to ‘be patient’ adding that they had a small number of staff who were taking on large volumes of work. Councillors shared their views on the work that had been carried out throughout the pandemic but Cllr Jonathan Preston said he had heard a couple of incidences where contractors had turned up to a house without PPE and said that one tenant was left feeling ‘quite intimidated’.

Cllr Tom Tudor called for a list to be done on work that had been carried out in different wards and said that some people felt they weren’t getting any feedback once they had reported an issue.

Cllr Bateman said the council was on a ‘digitisation journey’ which would make reporting much easier and provide feedback on issues.

She went on to say that a number of new builds in the county had been built with low cost maintenance in mind for the future so that the houses could be easily adaptable to people’s needs.

The council will be looking for people to help clear the backlog of work and Operations manager Peter Nicholas said that although they had taken 31 trades people in 2017, it was evident that they were ‘scraping the bottom of the barrel’.

He added that they would be changing their strategy on their tendering process and categorising works which would hopefully attract some of the smaller contractors in the county.

The council has also signed up to the shared apprentice scheme which would help apprentices get the experience they need and Peter added that as they had contact with them in their early years as a tradesperson, they could potentially take them on in future.

Peter was also asked about the backlog and he said that once a call had come in they would assess its urgency but added that a work which may not have been an emergency at the start could have become one which meant that would have been dealt with also.He described the non-urgent work as a ‘big unknown’ but said that items were being looked at regularly.

The council would normally deal with 10-12,000 emergencies in a year but in the last year that had gone up 16,000.Advertisements calling for contractors will be going out in June and July this year and officers are hopeful that more people will be encouraged to get involved. Cllr Michelle Bateman said there would be an element of managing expectations in the next year but said they needed to be honest with tenants about where they are and have open and clear communications. She added they did not want to over promise for fear of leaving some people feeling let down.

Councillors received the report while Cllr Tudor proposed that a letter of thanks be sent to all the housing and maintenance teams fortheir work during the pandemic.

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Rugby Weekly – Tenby’s promotion push continues

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It’s crunch time for all rugby clubs around the county, whether promotion is their aim or fighting relegation or even just trying to improve their league position, it’s now or never. 

Last weekend saw an important win for Fishguard in division two west which should put any relegation fears to bed completely. James Griffiths added an impressive 18 points for the Seagulls as they defeated Nantgaredig 33-19. 

Elsewhere in the second division, Milford were beaten 32-8 by a good Lampeter outfit. The Mariners are still a little too close for comfort with the drop zone but should have enough quality to see them safe. 

At the other end of the table Tenby sit in second place and have played fewer games than leaders St Clears and third place Lampeter. They won impressively again last weekend, beating Pontyberem 64-19 at Haywood Lane. Fletcher Broadhurst impressed with two tries as did Hywel Baker who also grabbed himself a brace. Another excellent performance in an outstanding season so far in which promotion would be the absolute icing on the cake. 

In Division Three West, Pembroke were well beaten by Laugharne 74-15 in which the outstanding Liam Price and Nico Setaro both crossed the whitewash 4 teams a piece. The latter also added 7 successful conversions. 

There was a local derby at Pill Parks where Llangwm hosted Pembroke Dock Quins and it was an exciting clash. The visitors won narrowly 28-23, Craig Barnett and Gethin Bradney both scored two tries for the Quins. The Wasps battled hard and will be proud of their performance, Gethin Thomas impressed for the hosts with two tries of his own but it wasn’t enough to secure the points. 

St David’s hosted the high flying Cardigan outfit and were unable to score in reply to the visitors 20 points, with it ending 20-0. The Saints however won’t be losing too much sleep over it as they have had a great season so far. 

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Stephen Crabb leads inquiry on retaining community bank services  

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PRESELI Pembrokeshire MP, and Chair of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee Stephen Crabb is leading an inquiry in Parliament that will investigate the closure of high street banks in Wales, as well as access to cash.

In November 2023, Pembrokeshire saw the closure of Lloyds Bank in St Davids, and in the coming months both Barclays Bank and Halifax in Haverfordwest are set to close. In recent years, Wales has experienced a rapid decline in the number of high street banking services available to the public. Already in 2024, 23 high street bank closures have been announced in Wales, while automated teller machines (ATMs) declined by nearly a quarter between 2018 and 2023.

The Committee willconsider how declining high street banking services are impacting vulnerable people and small businesses across Wales, who are often more reliant on cash than digital banking. It will also examine how Wales is being affected by the loss of high street bank services, and whether the problem is worse in Wales than other parts of the UK.

Mr Crabb is a staunch advocate for retaining community banking facilities, especially in rural communities like Pembrokeshire where many local branches remain the only source of face-to-face banking provision for miles.

Recently Mr Crabb challenged Barclays Bank senior management on their decision to close the bank branch in Haverfordwest– a move that will see Barclays not only pull out of the county town, but means they won’t have a branch left anywhere in Pembrokeshire. He has also engaged with LINK – the UK’s largest cash machine network – and continues to campaign on the basis that a Banking Hub is established and that ATM machines should be retained or installed, especially in areas worst affected by the closures.  

Following the launch of the inquiry, MP Crabb added: “It is really sad to see so many banks across Wales closing as online banking grows in popularity. Despite the advantages of online banking, for a rural community with an ageing population like Pembrokeshire, bank branches hold huge importance as they offer face-to-face customer service.”

“I am acutely aware of the inconvenience that the bank closures locally have already caused following hundreds of replies from constituents to my ‘online banking survey’ ”

“I am looking forward to gathering further evidence on this subject through the committee’s inquiry, and will continue to put pressure on the relevant stakeholders to ensure that adequate alternative provisions are made through the establishment of banking hubs as well as the instalment of ATM machines where necessary.”

“In this inquiry, we are particularly keen to hear from those likely to be directly affected by the shift away from cash and physical banks. I encourage anyone with first-hand experience of losing banking services to give evidence to the Committee”

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Trains resume between Carmarthen and Pembroke Dock as works end

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TRAIN services resumed this morning (Thursday 28 March) after ten days of essential round-the-clock work to upgrade track and drainage between Carmarthen and Pembroke Dock.

The railway was closed from Monday 18 March to Wednesday 27 March to allow Network Rail teams to replace more than 200 metres of track and 300 tonnes of ballast (track stones) between Pembroke station and Pembroke Dock.

Work to improve the drainage between Narbeth and Kilgetty stations was also completed at the same time.

Nick Millington, Network Rail Wales and Borders route director, said: “This essential work in Pembrokeshire demonstrates our commitment to improving the reliability of the service we provide to passengers along our route.

“We know that replacing the track can be disruptive and very noisy, so I would like to thank the residents of Pembroke for their patience while our team carried out this crucial work.”

Colin Lea, Planning and Performance Director at Transport for Wales said: “We’re pleased that our colleagues in Network Rail have completed this essential work and that Transport for Wales rail services resumed today.

“We’d like to thank passengers for their patience while this work has progressed and look forward to welcoming passengers back in time for the Easter weekend.”

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