Review of severe weather protocol planned after nine people turned away from homeless shelter

A review of Wrexham Council’s Severe Weather Emergency Protocol is to take place after nine people were turned away from a homeless shelter earlier this week due to lack of capacity.

Meetings about the procedure and services available locally came after days of snow, ice and year low temperatures over the weekend and the start of this week.

During yesterday’s Executive Board meeting Cllr David Griffiths, Lead Member for Housing, explained that during the cold period local homeless services, Tŷ Nos and St Johns, have been fully occupied.

On Monday 31 people presented themselves at Tŷ Nos, however nine were turned away due to lack of capacity. It has been confirmed today that those people were each given a hot drink and a sleeping bag to “ensure they could remain warm”.

Yesterday Cllr Griffiths confirmed that urgent meetings were being held throughout the day to ensure similar situations do not arise in the future.

Today Wrexham.com asked if there were any details on the outcomes of yesterday’s meetings.

Cllr Griffiths said: “The amount of people presenting at Tŷ Nos on Monday, December 11, was unprecedented, and marks a record figure since the facility opened.

“Due to the facility having taken on enough people to reach full capacity, some people had to be turned away – however, those that had to be turned away were not simply sent off, and they were each given a hot drink and a sleeping bag to ensure they could remain warm.

“Furthermore, outreach workers went out on Tuesday to make contact with all those that were turned away on Monday to ensure their welfare.

“Our Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) remained in place on Tuesday, although we did not expect there to be similarly high demand due to the gradual rise in temperature.

“Meetings were held yesterday to begin a review of the SWEP due to the unprecedented number of people who presented on Monday night, and to ensure we have better measures in place to predict demand.”