#neathporttalbotcouncil — Public Fediverse posts

NEATH PORT TALBOT: Scott Jones is the new council leader, three weeks after Steve Hunt quit

Neath Port Talbot Council has a new leader. Cllr Scott Jones, the Independent councillor for Gwynfi and Croeserw, was confirmed in the job at a full council meeting on Wednesday (14 October).

He takes over from Cllr Steve Hunt, who quit last month. Cllr Hunt said he was going for personal reasons, but also admitted he had got so drunk at an invitation-only event that he fell over, and that he had said he wanted to “wipe out” Plaid Cymru, the Independents’ partners in the ruling coalition.

Until Wednesday Cllr Jones was the cabinet member for Streetscene, the department that covers bins, recycling, roads, parks and flood defences. Readers will know him as the councillor quoted whenever the council takes a fly-tipper to court.

“Fair funding” first, says the new leader

The council says “fair funding and protecting vital services” will be at the top of his agenda, and that he wants the county borough to be “stronger, fairer and more resilient”.

“A key and immediate priority will be to make the strongest possible case for a fair and sustainable budget settlement for Neath Port Talbot Council,” he told the chamber. “The financial pressures facing local government remain significant, and we will work constructively with our partners to secure the resources needed to protect vital services and support the people who rely on them.”

It is the same fight his predecessor picked. Cllr Hunt used his reappointment in 2024 to warn the Welsh Government over the money the council gets, and said the night he fell over that his criticism had been aimed at Welsh Government spending decisions.

“Leadership is never about one individual”

Cllr Jones told councillors his time running Streetscene had shaped how he would lead. “As Cabinet Member for Streetscene, I have worked alongside dedicated officers and councillors to secure investment in our communities, improve parks and public spaces, strengthen flood defences, deliver environmental improvements and exceed Welsh Government recycling targets,” he said.

“Those achievements were made possible by teamwork, partnership working and a clear focus on delivering practical results for residents. They have reinforced my belief that effective leadership is never about one individual.”

He added: “It is about bringing people together, supporting them and creating the conditions for everyone to contribute. That principle will guide my approach to leading the Council.”

The council says he will also deliver “collaborative leadership” and the coalition’s priorities. Its announcement does not say whether anyone stood against him or how councillors voted.

Carl Jordan takes Streetscene, and a first cabinet next week

Cllr Carl Jordan becomes the cabinet member for Streetscene in his place, the council says. Deputy leader Cllr Alun Llewelyn, of Plaid Cymru, had been carrying out the leader’s duties since Cllr Hunt stepped down on 21 September.

Cllr Jones inherits the Rainbow Coalition of Independent, Plaid Cymru, Liberal Democrat and Green councillors that took over in 2022, the first administration not run by Labour since the council was created in 1996.

His first cabinet meeting as leader is next Wednesday (21 October), when it decides whether to consult on 32 more places for children with additional learning needs at two schools the council is still building, with no money yet found to run them.

Cllr Hunt stays on as the Independent councillor for Crynant, Onllwyn and Seven Sisters. He had been reappointed leader at every annual meeting since 2022, most recently in May.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

NEATH PORT TALBOT: Council leader Steve Hunt quits and admits he got so drunk he fell over
Why the job was vacant: the resignation, the gin, and the Plaid remark.

NEATH PORT TALBOT: “Nearly all” specialist places are full, so the council wants 32 more for autistic pupils
The first big decision on the new leader’s cabinet agenda.

Improvements for ‘towns, villages and valleys’ priority for new Neath Port Talbot coalition cabinet
How the Rainbow Coalition set out its stall in 2022.

Reappointed council leader vows to fight for more funding
The funding fight Cllr Jones has now taken on.

More Neath Port Talbot Council news
Every decision from the civic centres in Port Talbot and Neath.

NEATH PORT TALBOT: “Nearly all” specialist places are full, so the council wants 32 more for autistic pupils at its two new schools

Neath Port Talbot Council wants to open two new 16-place units for children with communication and interaction difficulties, the category it uses for autism, inside the two schools it is still building. The reason, it has told councillors, is that “nearly all specialist provisions continue to be at full capacity”.

A report to cabinet next Wednesday (21 October) asks for permission to consult on a primary-age unit at the new Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Rhosafan in Sandfields from September 2027. A secondary unit would follow at the rebuilt Llangatwg Community Comprehensive School in Cadoxton from September 2028.

Autism at both ends, and Welsh-medium places too

The council says it has added places since 2023, including 16 for autistic pupils at Blaenhonddan Primary, 15 at Ysgol Hendrefelin and three at Waunceirch Primary. Another 40 went in at Ysgol Maes y Coed for pupils with severe and profound learning difficulties.

“Despite the increase in LSC and Special School planned places, nearly all specialist provisions continue to be at full capacity,” the report says.

Its review of places for pupils with additional learning needs found the biggest demand for the next three years at primary level is for communication and interaction difficulties, alongside severe and profound multiple learning difficulties. At secondary level it is the same, plus cognition and learning difficulties and behavioural, emotional and social needs.

It adds that “there is an increasing need for Welsh-medium specialist provisions at both primary and secondary level”. A Welsh-medium secondary unit for cognition and learning has already been approved for the Ystalyfera campus of Ysgol Gymraeg Ystalyfera Bro Dur from September 2027, and the same meeting decides whether to consult on splitting that school in two.

Rhosafan first, Llangatwg a year later, and both still building sites

The Marine Drive primary in Sandfields has no learning support centre today. Its replacement, which won planning approval in August 2025 for up to 511 pupils with an ALN unit and a Welsh immersion unit, is now due to complete its first phase in summer 2027, with the unit in two purpose-built classrooms.

Llangatwg’s £30m rebuild on Main Road, approved by planners in January, will have 850 places and a two-classroom unit of its own, with the first phase due in summer 2028. When the plans went in last July the council said work would start in early 2026 and that the current building was rated C-, with £6.8m of backlog repairs.

The school’s roll is forecast to fall from 779 now to 600 by 2031, the report says, in a building with room for 1,169. Both units were written into the council’s £106.2m bid for five new schools back in November 2022.

The same squeeze in Swansea and Llanelli

Neath Port Talbot is not the only council building its way out of the problem. Swansea’s cabinet decides on Thursday (15 October) whether to release land off Mynydd Garnllwyd Road in Morriston for Ysgol Calon Lân, the city’s new 350-place special school, 100 more places than it has now, after all eight people who answered the legal notice objected.

In Llanelli, Carmarthenshire approved a 150-pupil replacement for Ysgol Heol Goffa in July 2025 at between £28m and £35m, two years after scrapping a £10m scheme as unaffordable, and shared the design brief with the school last October. Parents there have been asking for a build date ever since.

Swansea Council says more than 6,600 of its primary pupils have additional learning needs, around 1,600 of them needing more than their school can normally provide, and councillors have demanded the city’s share of the £322m Wales received on the back of special needs spending in England.

£653,000 a year and “no current funding identified”

The buildings are paid for through the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Communities for Learning programme. Running them is another matter: the council puts the cost of 16 full places at £332,272 a year at Llangatwg and £321,120 at Rhosafan.

“The Council will need to include these additional costs in its medium term financial planning arrangements as there is no current funding identified,” the report says, adding that home-to-school transport costs are “likely” to rise too once they can be estimated.

All three councils are waiting on the same pot. A week ago the Welsh Government and Welsh Labour agreed an extra £60m for additional learning needs across Wales this year, reviving the supplementary budget for a Senedd vote on 3 November, with Labour putting it at around £1,500 per pupil with ALN. How much reaches any of them has not been set out.

The tribunal warning

If the council does nothing, the report lists “financial risks, reputational damage and an increase in appeals to the Education Tribunal to Wales”, and says that “of highest priority, however, is that the needs of the most complex and vulnerable learners are not being met”.

Under the 2018 ALN Act, parents can appeal a council’s decision on a specialist placement and the tribunal can order the council to provide it. The report also warns that without the units pupils could end up in “less suitable, alternative or out-of-county placements”, with extra pressure on transport and education budgets.

The risks of going ahead, it says, include a “negative response from parents of host schools” and specialist staff not being available, though it rates the effect on the workforce as “neutral or positive” because the units create jobs.

Consultation from 2 November to 14 December

Education scrutiny backed the proposal on 1 October. If cabinet, where education sits with Cllr Nia Jenkins, agrees on Wednesday, consultation runs from 2 November to 14 December and the responses come back to cabinet before any statutory notice. The meeting is at 2pm in the Council Chamber, Port Talbot, and online.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

ALN FUNDING: Plaid and Labour strike £60m deal to revive the budget that fell in July: the money every council is now waiting on.

MORRISTON: Cabinet to decide on land for Swansea’s new 350-place special school: eight objections, a wildfire and a Thursday decision.

New school plans for Ysgol Heol Goffa move forward after years of uncertainty: Llanelli’s 150-pupil replacement and the long wait for a date.

Planning approval granted for new school in Sandfields, Port Talbot: the Rhosafan rebuild that will house the first new unit.

YSTALYFERA BRO DUR: 1,600-pupil Welsh-medium school to be split in two: the other school decision at the same cabinet.