Labour’s record after five

Schools went on a rollercoaster Cardiff’s schools went through a low patch at the start of Labour’s time in power after the 2012 election.

In 2014, education watchdog Estyn said schools needed “significant improvement” and not enough progress had been made since its criticisms three years earlier.

However, three years later and there has been undeniable improvement in the most recent inspection, although there is still work to do. And work has been progressing to provide new homes for two of the city’s most troubled high schools, Eastern High and the federated Michaelston Community College and Glyn Derw, which are set to become Cardiff West Community High School.

Cranes moved onto Central Square When you arrive in the city you can’t fail to see the work going on at Central Square. New offices and a new BBC headquarters are taking shape.

The fly in the multi-million-pound ointment is that there is still no bus station and Labour is going into the election without managing to tell anyone how they will actually pay for it.

While they maintain it’s fine, no-one has seen the figures to back that up.

On top of that, while they have secured renowned architects Foster + Partners, the design has changed considerably – and has been compared to a “Soviet-era monolith” rather than the curved beauty we were first promised.

But they made people really, really angry about bins We had bins marched across the city and dumped in front of City Hall, bins made into daleks and bins plastered with the cabinet member’s face – summer 2015 was the height of #bingate.

Introducing wheelie bins in terraced streets left many fuming, protesting and furiously signing petitions.

But the clampdown did help Cardiff hit the 58% target for recycling by 0.1%.

Internal bickering If any one thing has characterised Labour’s spell in power it has been the rivalry, defetions and antagonism in the ruling group.

For a while in 2015, it looked like Phil Bale would have no choice but to resign and the group would have to find its third leader of the term.

At a frankly disastrous budget meeting, he was made subject to a no confidence motion. When the vote was held days later, it was tied. An absent councillor had to return with the deciding vote the following week.

It didn’t end there. He had to continue issuing reminders he would not be forced out by “a minority” and even took to blocking some of his own councillors on Twitter. Then, with months to go before the election, they lost two by-elections and had a spate of resignations with members claiming they had been bullied.

Children’s services also got better In 2016, Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW) published a report saying there had been “significant improvements” to children’s services in Cardiff. It found that compared to two years before, there was evidence of a “clear strategic direction” and added that staff morale was generally positive with the number of vacancies falling since 2014-15.

People got very protective when they threatened to close libraries When the city council announced its cost-saving plans for 2015-16, one proposal was to stop funding for seven city libraries which would, campaigners said, lead to their inevitable closure.

Rumney, Rhiwbina, Cathays, Roath, Whitchurch, Rhydypennau and Radyr libraries were all affected. What followed was a relentless campaign including protests and read-ins. And just days before the budget meeting, it