South Wales Regional Forum: May 2026

Team Wales were delighted to be joined by members, stakeholders and partners at the South Wales Regional Forum held in Swansea. The aim of the forum was to bring people together to network and learn and to also enable the team in Wales to understand more about the challenges that the CT movement is facing at the moment, as well as share in the positive strides forward our operators are making.

Gemma Lelliott, Director for Wales started the morning off by speaking about the work that CTA are doing both in Wales and in the UK. Gemma continued this theme in her talk about how members can influence policy. This was illustrated by showing how recent surveys on fuel costs have contributed to the work that the CTA policy team do and how that can influence engagement at a national level.

The team held two workshops. The first was asking attendees to think about their dream organisation and what they would need from various partners and stakeholders to achieve this. It was clear that thinking long term for operators does pose a challenge as the issues that are immediate are the most urgent. Themes did emerge such as funding, volunteering, D1 and bus reform but alongside these came ideas about how to facilitate change so that organisations can grow and thrive.

In our second workshop, Michelle Clarke, Deputy Director for Wales asked people to think about how they respond to key questions that a funder may ask and how they can align themselves clearly with the funders mission and values. Michelle gave insights into how these bids should be written with these things in mind and the operators also worked with each other to hear how other operators approach funding bids. You can find funding support resources on the advice section of our website here. If you are looking for funding support specific to Wales, click here.

The forum benefited from a strong mix of attendees who were all able to contribute and work with each other to look at the CT sector from various viewpoints. This collaboration and networking are something that the team in Wales see as valuable for them and for the wider sector.

We look forward to our next forum in North Wales in July.