IT’S THE end of an era at Rhondda Cynon Taf Council.
One of the leading voices in Welsh local government is stepping down as leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf Council in May after 12 years at the helm.
Councillor Andrew Morgan. who is also the leader of the WLGA, has become one of the most respected and authoritative figures in public service in Wales.
He has led his authority through some challenging financial circumstances, major flooding and the Covid pandemic.
Now he has taken the decision to step aside so what better time to get to know the man who has held such a high profile high pressure role for so long a bit better.
He started as an apprentice with Cynon Valley Borough Council when he was 15 in the housing department with what was then Building Direct.
He worked on schools on housing maintenance and supported litigation work for the authority when he was a building inspector.
He was also a trade union rep with the GMB and he said: “It got me a little bit more interested about how the council is run and different things and I really care about the local area, my community which I live in. I’ve always lived in Mountain Ash. And that was originally the reason I decided to stand.
“So I gave up my job at the time, stood as a councillor in 2004 and here I am today.”
Speaking about some of the things he’s most proud of in his time as leader and a councillor, he said: “I think locally I really enjoy the community side of things, being able to set up a community centre in my ward.
“When a school closed around 2004, 2005 we took on the lease, a group of us, and we ran the Darran Las Community Building which is now a really well used community centre seven days a week.”
He also mentioned things like the Nos Galan and Christmas events saying he really likes doing things for the community such as calling residents about issues and getting things done locally.
He said: “You can’t always resolve a problem. You can’t always get things done but in the main I’d say probably 75% of the things I get I’m able to resolve them, one way or another.
“It’s just nice to be able to help people.”
Turning to balancing his local responsibilities as a councillor with that of the leader of the council, he said: “Time wise, it can be challenging and people say ‘oh you know councillors you don’t see them unless there’s an election’ well I’d slightly argue on that because I kind of work seven days a week.
“I’m sending emails at midnight or I’m up early in the morning, sometimes 6 o’clock if I know I’ve got a lot to get through or I’ve got a busy day of meetings.”
He said it is challenging but he always tries to make a day on a Friday for local things.
He said: “But it’s also challenging in terms of priorities because you know when you’ve got to set a budget and you go to make difficult choices it sometimes affects the area you live in and it’s not nice at all to be honest with you but you’ve got to look at that bigger picture and when you are in the position of the leader unfortunately the statutory responsibility sits with you.”
He said even when sometimes the public are unhappy with a decision or they don’t like something, quite often possibly they don’t understand it is because of the statutory position so sometimes you don’t have an awful lot of choice on some of it.
He also spoke about life outside of being a councillor and his love of dogs.
He said: “I’ve always had Boxer dogs. The last dog sadly died in October 2023 I think it was.
“And then in November 2024, I had two Boxer pups and so they are just over a year old now and they keep me very busy.
“I’m grateful. I’m lucky that family help me and friends help me to look after them when I’m out.
“Sometimes I’m back and forth from the house, so that’s fine. Sometimes I can do several Teams meetings from the house. Other days I’m out all day and people help to manage it.
“But they keep me certainly busy and they keep me focussed and Boxers are a brilliant breed in terms of affection and taking them for a walk e.t.c.. That is a bit of an escape I suppose.”
Cllr Morgan also discussed where things are in politics today and what cause for optimism there is.
He said: ”I hope there isn’t a return to austerity. Having our council budget services cut by 3 or 4% a year was just crazy.
He said they were being told the budget was going to get cut the following year by £10m or £20m at a time when there was a pay rise for staff and they had to manage the costs of additional services and demand pressures.
He said the last government’s plan was to have 1% increases in spending for the next few years and as much as it is still challenging and every public service will say they want more money “at least we are not facing those 1% rises” adding that in the coming year they’re having 4.5%.
He said: “4.5% compared to 1% is literally hundreds of jobs being protected and I mean these are people in our libraries, our leisure centres, highways, litter pickers or teachers who are doing valuable work.
“It’s not a case of protecting jobs for the sake of it, these are people who ultimately all the public rely on.”
He thinks there is optimism around public service but said ultimately the economy has been really sluggish although there are some signs that maybe things are improving around inflation and mortgage rates.
“So those sort of things I think are signs for optimism in terms of the more people have money in their pocket the more chance they have of spending. The more spending they do the better for the economy.”
He highlighted some of the good things the government has done such as the miners’ pension scheme which he has been an advocate for as well as the staff superannuation scheme which is seeing miners, miners’ widows and miners’ families benefitting.
He said there are changes being made to see more police come back on the streets saying a big chunk of council tax goes towards the police and the fire service.
He said when the UK Government funding cut police numbers people felt they were paying more and seeing less.
“At least now there is a steady increase in police numbers. I probably would like to see it go further and faster so people do actually see the bobby back on the beat.
“People do say to me, well, we don’t see a police officer but that’s why in the council we funded 10 PCSOs because one of the things at the last election, people were saying to me about not being safe.
“Between our community safety team, our community wardens and funding PCSOs, that was a direct result of feedback from people to councillors, to myself and others saying we don’t always feel safe.”
Turning to this year’s Senedd elections, Cllr Morgan said: “The biggest thing, no matter who people vote for, I would probably say to them to really make sure they challenge the policies and what people say.
“It’s easy sometimes in politics for people just to give soundbites. One of the things I’ve always prided myself on in the council is that while I’ve been leader every manifesto we’ve set out and manifesto commitments we have delivered or exceeded.
“There are some parties out there who will be giving soundbites and saying very populist things where actually the truth will be they will not be able to deliver what they’re saying.
“They know that. Most of us will know that, but I really hope the public won’t be hoodwinked by individuals when they have their slogans, they have their five minutes in the media and on TV.
“Ultimately all the policies of all the parties should be scrutinised and challenged before they put their cross in the box.”
Cllr Morgan also discussed what might be next for him and gave his message for the people of RCT after 12 years in the role.
He said: “So in terms of what’s next, I’m still not sure yet. I’ve made the decision at the last election not to re-stand at the 2027 council elections.
“I have made no secret of it for quite some time that I wouldn’t be re-standing.
“In terms of stepping down, it’s the right time to step down to allow somebody else now to take the council forward for the next 12 months before the elections in 2027.”
He said he has applied and shown some interest in various things and he said that he is still really committed to public services so while he might not be involved in local government he has had a lot of involvement with other sectors such as the police, the fire service, the NHS and others.
“I have put some expressions in before Christmas. It is very rigorous, panel assessments and test and review for various positions. So I’ll see what comes up in the coming weeks and months. But I certainly hope I can play a role in public services.”
He added: “People may criticise some of the decisions we’ve had to make, especially our budgets, which is hard.
“If the truth be told there’s a number of decisions I wish we hadn’t had to make but as I referenced earlier there are statutory things around budgets and how we set the budget we have to do so unfortunately some of those decisions were unavoidable, but there’s lots of good things.”
He said capital investment is one area he has really pushed on and said there’s no other council in Wales that has either built or vastly renovated over 30 brand new schools and he said there are 16 3G pitches.
He said they’ve put huge investment into leisure centres and eliminated a huge amount of the backlog of road maintenance from 16% of roads failing to now only 5% and while 5% is still too high especially when it’s cold and wet, they have massively invested.
Cllr Morgan mentioned the “huge resource” they’ve put in supporting the tips team in RCT with a multimillion pound tips programme after what happened with the floods and that they’re spending millions and millions every year on flood defences and improving resilience for those areas the council is responsible for.
He also mentioned the investment in parks, play areas and changing rooms, skate parks and multi use games areas (MUGAs).
“They are the kind of legacy things where those investments can make a difference for generations to come.
“And I am grateful, I’ve got to say for the literally hundreds of messages. I still have got literally dozens and dozens of messages I haven’t replied to.
“The overwhelming response I’ve had I’ve got to say has been of people saying thank you and even people from opposition parties who, we don’t always get on, have been really I think generous in their comments.”
He said at this week’s council meeting comments were very positive about the way he does politics and in a meeting of the WLGA with people from across Wales.
“I think quite often we get things done better, we work better when we take the politics out.”
He said: “A lot of political parties or individual politicians I think go into it for the right reason – they do care. I see councillors who care passionately about their community and I think we get better outcomes when we come together.”
Cllr Morgan said: “There’s loads of positives I can point to. There’s things I wish we could have resolved or things that I’d like to have seen go forward but also with our corporate plan as a council and also our capital programme being set I know that for the coming next few years, certainly when I’m not leader, there’s still going to be good things.
“There’s still regeneration projects in the offing. We still have a significant apprenticeship and graduate programme. There’s lots of things that are going to continue and I hope that the last 10 years of investment and the changes and the positivity that will carry us forward.”
