Caerphilly, like many councils across Wales, is facing a huge financial challenge over the next few years.

Our robust financial management has already resulted in £20 million of permanent savings being approved for this financial year. However, we need to deliver savings in the region of £45 million over the next two financial years.

In order to achieve this, we have embarked on an ambitious new transformation programme called "Mobilising Team Caerphilly".

The programme will help us deliver widespread change, efficiencies and improvements across all parts of the organisation.

Thanks to the collective effort of everyone involved in this work, we are already seeing positive progress and the council is starting to make substantial savings through our transformation programme.

I’m confident that we can continue to deliver the most essential services, but the way in which we deliver them will need to change. Our biggest spend is on services like education and social care, which are the backbone of any civil society, while non-statutory services will shrink,

We will continue to work with our communities so that together we will deliver the services that you need, but it is important to note that the way they are delivered will change – it simply has to.

I want to be honest with the community, because it is clear that the scale of savings mean we need to make some very difficult decisions over the coming months.

We can’t continue to run traditional council services in a traditional manner, things have to change. We will be reviewing all parts of the organisation and these will include such things as catering, leisure, libraries and tourism destinations.

I want to ensure that you have a voice in this process, so there will be wide ranging consultations both online and throughout the county borough. It is vitally important that you engage in this process so that you help shape the way we deliver our services.

It is clear that the scale of the financial challenges facing this council are unprecedented, but by working together as Team Caerphilly, I am confident we can rise to the challenge and continue to support the needs of our communities for the future.