Matt
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Derek, yes I think that transparency falls more importantly than anything else when it comes to the local democratic process, which is I think why the act of deleting a tweet has raised an even greater profile to the issue than might originally have happened. Questions of conduct raised and whether or not council officers are acting competently. It’s a complete can of worms.
I think in light of his position and the weight of what it suggests – a vote of no confidence – then it does go some way to explaining why he deleted the tweet. I don’t think it was Clr Jones overall intention to imply a serious vote of no confidence – more an impassioned and emotive statement in regards to trying to protect his constituents best interests. Obviously after the fact he’s perhaps realised that it was ill judged to be so strongly worded.
Again it’s one of those things where we regularly see heated exchanges between councillors/politicians on Twitter both in Wrexham (Clr Terry Evans vs Arfon re: policing) and further afield. Some elected officials get away with a firebrand attitude & others get more heavily criticised for doing the same thing – it’s completely inconsistent.
Ultimately in regards to mass planning applications that the LDP and related mass house building enforced upon towns and rural communities is creating a lot of disagreement. Many councillors voted against the overall LDP plans. It’s a complete catch 22 situation as Wrexham is undeniably expanding and seeing a population increase and there is a shortage of housing so building at some level needs to happen. However, no councillors or their constituents want that activity happening in their area – so where do you build?
People do have a point though – for years and years the green belt has been protected from overdevelopment and that idea stands strong in most people’s minds. Now this local LDP plan has run roughshod through that concept and decided we should be just slamming down concrete and bricks left, right and centre on green land. There needs to be some kind of carefully measured balance. As many people constantly point out – our local green and rural areas are some of the county’s strongest assets.
I think if Clr Jones was to have continuously frustrated the report in private when he had sight of it to get amendments to his liking before it was up for public scrutiny then people would have argued lack of transparency that way. As it would have been the case that he’d have had an even easier report to argue against and shoot down.
There are always going to be differences in opinion about what is accurate or inaccurate about a planning application – there are 2 very vested opposing arguments in place – where it’s build or no build. If there’s a successful planning application someone gets to profit and someone gets to perhaps have buildings they don’t want in their area that affect the local ecosystem/community as a whole.
Far better for all elected stakeholders to have it out in the public forum and a few accusations thrown around then we take it from there – rather than someone like the deputy council leader using rank to influence things from behind the scenes.
Arguments over inaccuracies etc… and unfair rejection of planning applications is why like in any other legal minefield there is an appeals process. However, I do agree that the WAG’s appeal process that overturns local rejections in favour of build at all costs – it seems – is incredibly unfair.
As I think someone here or elsewhere on social media mentioned those down in Cardiff making the decisions have no idea about the local area being affected or how it will impact on that community. Building up Wales seems to have become a horrible box ticking exercise.
This bizarre removal of tweet and then protection of account was something of a mystery to me when I was reading through the issue on Twitter. If Clr Jones has made a statement in public and then published it on social media he should stand by that point and not rescind it at a later time – as you can see it’s now been retrieved.
Whilst I very rarely, if ever in fact agree with anything Clr Hugh Jones says or does. On this occasion I completely back him in his public right to query the Officers & any subsequent inaccuracies they may have made in the report as part of his role as a councillor elected to the local ward. As he has a public duty to protect his constituents best interests. Many of whom have expressed grave concern about this local housing application.
At the end of the day this in an important part of the scrutiny process – through the pulling apart of public inaccuracies in Wrexham Council reports either done in-house or from consultants. It’s the local activists & opposition councillors basic right to carry out such activities – so if we are to shut down someone within the ruling Executive for basically calling out errors and inaccuracies then we may as well just stop campaigning now & accept verbatim everything that WCBC delivers in reports.
There are many examples of where the council have got it wrong in the past and it has needed to be flagged up.
There were discrepancies in reports in regards to the demolition of Plas Madoc.
A previous difficult decisions consultation proposed to demolish Penycae community centre stating it was unused when in fact it was still in daily use by multiple local community stakeholders.
Clr Bithell was called out because he was unable to produce any record of Wrexham Council’s decision in prior meetings to take a zero tolerance approach to litter dropping as defence for Kingdom’s unscrupulous litter enforcement actions in the county. Despite the fact that he swore in a council meeting that this was truth.
I may be getting the wrong end of the stick here, but surely Clr Jones is actually doing what his local constituents elected him to do so?
Jim – You mean all the libraries will end up very shiny and polished looking on the outside with very little going on inside – much like the Exec himself.
I think you are right – judging by the small numbers of people who bothered to fill out the online consultation – I can hardly even see smartphone and computer users bothering to navigate round Wrexham Council’s clunky and cumbersome website to fill out a multi-step web form with their post code to then have to download and then physically print off their own calendar.
I’m not even sure if the whole process on the site – including the PDF are accessibility friendly for those who are visually impaired or have other disabilities that would make this access a whole lot more difficult than providing them with something physical.
Then there are some particularly in the older generation who have never owned a smartphone or a computer and never will. They should be made available in physical form to those who can at least phone the council to request one.
WCBC actually listened to the don’t mess with the bins warning. Backtracked on both £30 Green Bin charge & Three Weeks Bin collections.
Think a lot of strongly worded responses went in on both of these. Some otherwise very reasonable people hinting that the county would be overran by vermin, burning of rubbish in back gardens and aggressive grass and shrubbery offcuts flung all over the place in a complete abandonment of green bins.
The sheer laziness of them, bobbies dozing off on the beat – I expect Clr Terry Evans will be giving the Commissioner an earful on social media as usual.
Ioan – I already live out in the sticks and my service provision complaints and remarks on overall council performance refers to Wrexham equally on a county level.
As Wrexham town is the main area of population within the county and effectively where the decision makers and rate payers money for the whole county goes – it is unavoidable that the town itself is going to face certain levels of criticism itself.
I don’t exactly think the current Executive’s performance has been pretty good on an overall county level anyway – rural services and community facilities being cut all the time. Post Office closures, rural business and village shop closures, GP surgeries closing and merging, planning decisions unfit for purpose where they want to build houses on areas that will put pressure on local infrastructure or land at high risk of flooding and subsistence. Insufficient bus services serving the rural areas – I know these are privatised but the council is in charge of securing the provision or providing subsidies to make sure that a full service is ran and that those who rely on bus services are not isolated. School funding shortages still apply in rural schools. Like Derek came up with other issues of town council failings – I’m sure those with a broader knowledge or their local rural issues have a whole other list of how WCBC have mismanaged their local area.
The reason there are people who live in the county but don’t use the town centre is because they can afford not to – they have cars and have the option to shop in Llangollen, Oswestry, Chester, Shrewsbury, Mold, Cheshire Oaks, Broughton etc… But if there was a decent town centre offering then people would be attracted in and it would promote regeneration. So it’s a Catch-22 situation.
There are some (both rural and urban) who don’t have the luxury of making a living and shopping outside of Wrexham town centre. They have no choice but to rely on the town centre and the public transport to get there. So it basically creates a 2-tier Town and County – those who can afford to go elsewhere and those who can’t.
It is my understanding that there is a shortage of Primary School places in the centre of Wrexham town area in both the Welsh speaking (hence the proposals for a Welsh school in Borras) & English speaking educational tracks.
The expansion of Barkers Lane school only deals with an increase of pupils of that age group in a small catchment area around Borras/Smithy area. So there is need for an additional full English Primary school nearer to the town centre.
The main reason for the increase in pupils of Primary age is because of the baby boom that happened 2008 onwards and the years leading on after during austerity and recession.
I’m unsure if the 9 acre is the best site for a new school though as I always thought of that as a recreational green space near to town aimed at the use of the whole community – which being built on would be lost with the remaining field space being reserved for pupils only.
It would also put pressure on traffic into town during rush hour in the morning and then the notorious school run time.
