Councillor Steven Bletsoe

30/10/2026

God speed you guys.

Go and show Europe what 5 bois from Bridgend can do

The Crows are back out on the road once again alongside our Crow Crew as we gear up to join the Dance Kid Dance Act 2 tour with our good friends and RNR Heavyweights SHINEDOWN

First stop Paris 🇫🇷
Let’s Fu**in Crooooooow! 🖤🤘🏼

29/10/2026

The Labour MP and Labour BCBC Councillors are queuing up to inform you what "Andy Burnham's first budget means for Bridgend".

Well, I can tell them what it means for some of the most vulnerable.........

The Plaid Cymru Welsh Government has just announced that Social Rents will increase by 4% next year.

However.......

The Labour UK Government has just frozen Local Housing Allowance yet again.

UK Labour has frozen LHA in every budget they have produced since they won the General Election in July 2024. The last time LHA was increased was in April 2024.

Freezing Local Housing Allowance forces tenants into fuel poverty and is falling short of the 30 percentile levels it is designed to keep pace with in the Private Rental Sector.

So whilst our local Labour elected representatives are waxing lyrical about yesterday's budget, I would like someone to justify numerous budgets that have continued to freeze LHA.

26/10/2026

These photos remind us of our important history with those who served and paid the ultimate sacrifice aboard HMS Urge during World War II

A reminder if ever it was needed that we will never forget them

Thank you Martin Punter and Alex Land for these photos.

23/10/2026

*update* V2C have confirmed they are en route to deal with this

Please be careful out there with this wind.

This tree has fallen in Tairfelin. It has been reported to the land owner V2C and Llanw for action.

But, there are trees falling around the County, so please keep yourselves safe.

22/10/2026

I've been in part of the COSC (corporate overview and Scrutiny meeting) this morning.

I say part of it, as it's been cut short because of the outages we've experienced at bcbc today.

The council website was down, the schools phone and internal systems and services such as telecare appear to have been affected. However officers are working hard to patch these outages to fix them and hopefully regular services will resume shortly.

Prior to the meeting being stopped I did manage to ask a question around the Social Services figures on page 31 of the public report onwards.

At section 3.3.2 we are told "current projections indicate an overspend of £2.856m at year end compared to the Q1 projected overspend of £1.502m " so almost a doubling of the overspend.

On the following pages of the report we are told the following areas of the service are in overspend:
Older people homecare
Homes for older people
Mental health residential care
Learning disabilities home care
Physical disability/sensory impairment Home care
Learning disabilities day opportunities
Children and family services
Independent residential care
Children's supported living
Commissioning and social work.

Where there were underspends they were caveated with statements such as "this is as a result of ongoing staffing vacancies in the service" "the underlying projected under spend is due to underspend on staffing budgets" and "The main reason for the projected underspend is staff vacancies"

I then went on to ask, being as this was a public meeting with these figures in the public domain it's likely taxpayers would ask "is this directorate's budget running out of control?" And "what is being done to rein this (overspending) in"

I am *really* concerned about the overspend and the rationale given for it. At the very end a cabinet member (who isn't the cabinet member for social services, (that cabinet member was away in Cardiff at a conference)) tried to state this over spend is a "world wide issue" before he was rightly closed down by the Chair. I'm sick of hearing these excuses trotted out by rote and so are the public tbh. (Austerity, Wars, the Tories...there's always an excuse and never self evaluation from a party that been in charge at bcbc for decades. ) 🙄🫣

I have been told that I can bring this issue back to the upcoming budget deep dives by the Corporate Director but as those are not public meetings I hope the Chair of COSC will reschedule today's meeting again shortly. I don't want scrutiny of this Labour administration done behind closed doors and frankly nor do the public.

22/10/2026

In yesterday's BCBC Full Council meeting we scrutinised the Q2 capital expenditure turnout for the finsl year of this BCBC administration.

In May 2022 they were elected as the largest group based on a series of manifesto promises.

I asked for an update on the promises made.by this Labour administration in relation to building new schools by the end of the 5 year term

How many will be built?

Here is the answer.

20/10/2026

This is an extremely difficult and distressing situation that has affected many in our community.

Please respect everyone involved and do not engage in speculation around the situation and allow South Wales Police to carry out their difficult role.

My thoughts and prayers are sent to everyone who has been touched by this situation

Update | Officers were called to Coity Road, Bridgend at around 12:43pm yesterday (Monday October 19) following a report of a road traffic collision, wherein a car had collided with a wall.

Upon attendance, officers identified that the driver had sustained injuries unrelated to the collision.

Despite medical attention, the driver, a 47-year-old woman from North Cornelly, has died at hospital. Her family has been informed, though formal identification has yet to take place.

Following a significant policing operation in the area of nearby Ger-y-Nant, a 61-year-old man from Bridgend has been arrested on suspicion of murder. He is currently in police custody.

Chief Superintendent Jason Rees said: “A man is now in custody following a significant policing operation in Ger-y-nant overnight.

“This is a deeply distressing incident, and our thoughts are with the victim’s family, and everyone affected. We thank the local community for their support, which has resulted in an arrest with no further injuries sustained.

“We thank those displaced from their homes overnight for their co-operation at a worrying time as we support them in returning home.

“We thank the local community for their co-operation as our investigation continues.”

If you have any information regarding this incident, or captured footage, please send this to police using this link, quoting 2600342470: https://orlo.uk/fy6mW