‘Coronavirus cost Swansea Council £50m so far’, says leader

This sum comprises the extra measures that have been put in place to support vulnerable people, including hiring of extra staff for social services work, plus loss of revenue from things like car parks, council tax deferrals, business rates relief, and the construction of the Bay Studios field hospital, off Fabian Way.

The council does have more money in its accounts than normal because the Welsh Government gave it four revenue support grant installments this month instead of two, but this is effectively a down payment and not extra money.

The authority is also using money it holds in its reserves – but it will receive a share of additional Wales-wide funding which has been created in response to the current emergency.

Nevertheless, Cllr Rob Stewart said the ledger showed a sizeable deficit on the £50 million outlay at present. “We are doing whatever is necessary to support both national Governments and we are doing that in good faith and on the basis that both Governments have asked us to do it.”

He emphasised that in return he expected both Cardiff Bay and Westminster to honour this commitment financially.

Councils across Wales received the first decent increase in Government funding this financial year since around 2013.

Although inflationary pressures and council tax rises have shown little let-up, planned cutbacks were scaled down and extra investment put into key services like education.

The Covid-19 outbreak has changed the picture again.

“Demand for social care has ramped up, not down,” said Cllr Stewart.

“Education is not the service it was, although that’s no different in Swansea to anywhere else.”

The council has been able to carry on with some road repairs and parks maintenance, and the Labour leader said he expected hanging baskets to be put up as normal in the coming weeks.

Waste recycling centres, though, will remain closed for now. “It’s one of the services we would love to open as soon as possible,” said Cllr Stewart.

But he said opening recycling centres would have to be done at the same time throughout Wales, to stop people driving long distances to drop off their bits and pieces. “We don’t want people making non-essential journeys,” he said.

However he added that the council was looking at ways it could increase its bulky waste collection service.

Cllr Stewart paid tribute to staff, including officers who have already processed 2,600 small business grants worth more than £33 million as part of the coronavirus response.

He and a small number of the council’s cabinet members and top-ranking officers continue to meet twice a day, under new emergency powers. Cllr Stewart said some matters were brought before the leaders of the three opposition parties. This arrangement, he said, was working well.

He anticipated that cabinet, planning and licensing meetings would resume – albeit remotely – before long.

Cllr Stewart also praised the 1,400 volunteers who had stepped forward to help the council.

“Some of them are being utilised at the moment,” he said. “We’ve had more than we could deploy. I’m really pleased with the reaction. It’s brilliant.”