Have Your Say On Council Budget Cuts

Wrexham Council are encouraging residents to take part in a consultation and give feedback on proposed budget cuts for 2014/2015.

The consultation document called ‘Reshaping Services’ has been released following last weeks agreement on budget proposals for the next 12+ months. You can take part in the survey here.

Now members of the public have an opportunity to make their views count on the proposals being put forward and also to give any other suggestions. Next year the Council has to find £13 million in cuts as part of a five year programme to achieve £45 million of cuts. A full PDF of the consultation and the proposals can be found here.

Earlier this year the Council ran ‘YouChoose’, a programme that encouraged residents in Wrexham to take part in a budget simulator exercise. In total just over 300 people took part in the survey which allowed users to ‘balance the books’ and the Council how you think they should spend money, generate income and make savings to balance the budget.

Last week the Council Executive Board approved the consultation and budget proposals for the upcoming year, which includes cuts to services such as Community Facilities, Highway Maintenance,  Street Cleaning and School Catering. The public consultation will run until December 11th, and will go before the Full Council next year.

The following day the Homes, Environment and Communities Scrutiny Committee met to discuss the future of Community Centres and libraries in the area. It was decided that rather than close Rhos, Brymbo and Gresford libraries, they would instead support the recommendation that there is a reduction of opening hours across all of Wrexham’s libraries.

The ten page survey features a number of questions on discretionary services provided by the Council, a subsidised bus service, changes to school budget services and a leisure review (to name a few!). Each question asks participants to give their opinion on each subject matter, with options ranging from strongly agree, don’t know or strongly disagree with what the Council are proposing.

An example of some of the questions asked in the ‘Reshaping Services’ survey

As well as taking part online, you can send an email to [email protected] (please mark your email ‘budget consultation’), or write to , 3rd Floor Annexe, The Guildhall, Wrexham, LL11 1AY (please mark your letter ‘budget consultation’).