Dana Davies: Independents & Labour Should Run Wrexham Council

The new Independent / Conservative coalition set to run Wrexham Council has been questioned by the Leader of Wrexham’s Labour grouping before the new Council has even started.

Yesterday a statement was released revealing the controlling coalition that has been agreed to run Wrexham Council, however there was gap in naming the actual roles involved. Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats responded to the statement with the former quite critical of the outcome.

This morning Wrexham’s Labour grouping, the second biggest with 12 seats, have issued a lengthy statement via Councillor Dana Davies, the Leader of the group.

Cllr Davies said: “They’re calling it a ‘new’ administration, but it’ll be the same two people – Mark Pritchard and Hugh Jones – in charge who were running the council before the election, so the people of Wrexham can expect more of the same”

“It also looks like we’re going to get more of the same in terms of the lack of transparency within the Guildhall which characterised the previous administration. Why aren’t we allowed to know who will be in the lead roles?”

Cllr Davies continued: “I’m sure the taxpayers of Wrexham will be as keen as the Labour group is to hear what the Independent-Tory council’s policies and direction will be, seeing as we didn’t see any pre-election manifestos.

“I would certainly challenge Cllr Pritchard’s assumption that this is ‘the best coalition for the people of Wrexham’. Based on the election results, the people of Wrexham voted for the Independents and Labour to work together in running the council.

“We have already seen how a Tory agenda puts our public services at risk and the Labour group will be committed to providing alternatives to the council’s policies of ‘cut, stop, close and outsource’. We need a council with vision which embraces the true meaning of partnership working to deliver for the people of Wrexham.”

Similar to our requests yesterday for comment, we asked if Councillor Pritchard had been in touch since the election.

Cllr Davies said he had: “It became apparent very quickly that he was forming another administration with the Tories didn’t want to negotiate a potential alternative with the Labour group”

“As a result, no negotiations with him took place. I can assure the people of Wrexham that Labour will continue to listen to them and work with all groups to deliver the best results we can for them in opposition.”

Top pic: The Labour council candidates launching their manifesto before the local elections that took place two weeks ago.