Posted: Tue 23rd Oct 2018

“Dark times” for Wrexham means you will be asked your thoughts on ‘6% or more’ council tax rise

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Oct 23rd, 2018

Members of the public are being urged to have their say on proposed budget cuts – with the leader of Wrexham Council warning of “dark times” ahead for residents of the county borough.

More than £40 million of cuts have been made by the local authority in recent years, resulting in cuts to frontline services and the closure of several local facilities.

However the stark warning from councillors today was that there are “extremely difficult” times ahead, with more services at risk as Wrexham Council looks to save a further £18 million over the next two years.

On Wednesday (24th October) the latest ‘Difficult Decisions’ consultation will launch, with members of the public being asked to have their say on a potential six per cent (or more) increase of council tax, a review into the local library services and potential council income generators.

Deputy leader of Wrexham Council, Cllr Hugh Jones, described the decisions facing the public and the local authority as “impossible”.

He said: “It is important now that the public have the opportunity to have their say.

“In order to set the scene we need to understand a number of things. The consultation last year we did over a period of two years based on all the indications that that Welsh Government had given us. We were looking at a period of relative stability to enable us to sensibly plan over the two years.

“What we’ve now found at this very late stage is Welsh Government have come out with a settlement which is significantly worse than they had previously indicated and as a result we are now having to make some changes in the financial year 19/20 and 20/21.

“We were looking to save £11 million over two years, we are now faced with £18 million over two years. That is a £7 million difference over a two year period on top of over £40 million savings already made.”

“We started a consultation a few years back calling it ‘difficult decisions’, we are now faced with impossible decisions as none of came into local government to cut back services.”

Leader of Wrexham Council, Cllr Mark Pritchard, described the provisional settlement as a “disaster which could have a massive impact on the services we deliver in Wrexham”.

He added: “I look at Labour, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats, this can’t go through unless it has support. Speak to AMs and MPs.

“Austerity has to stop, this is madness. It is a merry go round and we have to get off.”

Cllr Phil Wynn, lead member for education, called for leader of the Labour group, Cllr Dana Davies and leader of the Plaid Cymru Group, Cllr Marc Jones to use their “influence” with contacts that apparently have the ears of Welsh Government and lobby them to “soften the blow”.

He added: “I hope you will play your part in any way with the powers that be in Cardiff and any additional monies come the way of local government”.

However in a rare showing of amicability and a contrast to an earlier and more heated executive board earlier this month where a time out was called, Cllr Pritchard, noted that Cllr Davies had been lobbying and meeting with Welsh Government ministers since the settlement announcement.

Cllr Davies added that she’d had eight meetings with ministers over the past week to make representations for Wrexham and argue that any additional monies for education needs to go via the local authority and directly to schools.

Questions were raised by Cllr Alun Jenkins over the publicity of the consultation and how the council are looking to engage with residents throughout the process.

Cllr Jenkins said: “The consultation process worries me, the document is long and discouraging.

“I know we do marvellous work in consultation, but when I talk to people out there and explain to them, my feeling is the public don’t realise until a bin collection changes or that there will charges for things.

“I think we really do need to do more effective ways of involving more people and sharing dilemma we are in.”

However Cllr Jones pointed to the council’s previous track record and imagination with consultations, referencing the use of social media, cartoons and infographics to inform the public in the past.

It was also noted that along with an online campaign, details about the consultation are in every public building owned by the council – along with meetings with various groups.

He added: “There is no stone left unturned in terms of promoting consultation and stressing to public importance of letting us know.

“We can do no more than what we are doing. Our communications team are one that we can be proud of. They do a fantastic job in getting message out there.”

In a tongue in cheek reference to last week’s homes and environment scrutiny committee, Cllr Bithell suggested that A Boards could be placed in the town centre encouraging people to ‘lobby your Assembly Member”. (More on that article here…)

In terms of the potential increase of council tax, Cllr Brian Cameron for the consultation to be clearer to the public with any additional precepts and charges that would increase council tax by more than six per cent.

Cllr Jones explained that a levy from the North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority has been factored into any council tax rise, but agreed further clarity is needed in terms of community councils and the police and crime commissioner precepts which are not set by the council.

Members of the executive board voted unanimously in favour of launching the ‘Difficult Decisions’ consultation.

This year’s Difficult Decisions consultation will launch tomorrow, Wednesday 24th October, and members of the public will have five weeks to take part.

As per today’s meeting and concern about how to increase public engagement / awareness of the council’s consultation, we of course encourage everyone to have their say over the next five weeks. Expect to see several budget related articles and reminders from us in that period as well…!

Our live tweets from the meeting earlier that included this agenda item are below in reverse order…



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