Wrexham Council’s ‘Difficult Decision’ Consultation Goes Live

Wrexham Council’s ‘Difficult Decisions’ financial consultation launched this morning – we take a look at this year’s survey and what to expect if you participate.

This year’s consultation is titled ‘Difficult Decision’ (replacing last year’s ‘Reshaping Services’ title) and invites members of the public to give their decision on proposed financial cuts.

At the start of the consultation you have a total of £7,331,000, as this is the amount in savings already identified by Wrexham Council. Participants are then given the opportunity to show how they would the remaining £3,669,000 of savings from the proposals put forward.

Throughout the course of the consultation participants are shown how much they have made in savings and how far they need to go to make further reductions.

The consultation itself is relatively straight forward to complete, asking participants to state whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree or neither to the proposals put forward. There is also the opportunity to offer any additional comments you may want to make on particular proposals.

For anyone who feels something has been missed off the consultation or has something they feel should be put forward as a saving method also have the chance to make additional comments at the end of the survey.

Many of the proposals put forward in the consultation will come as no surprise to many, with subjects covering the funding of Post-16 transport, a review of aspects of adult health and social care, the potential closure of the Bersham Heritage Centre and a review of Wrexham’s Tourist Information Centre.

Some of the more interesting proposals the public are asked to give their views on is a review of the Community Safety Budget (£75,000), the transfer of shop mobility to a third sector provider (£23,000), dual use of leisure services to schools (£10,000); further changes to highways / grass cutting and reviews of various adult / children services.

Also put forward is a 5% increase in Council Tax and a review of the highly debated Mayoral Service in Wrexham, which could make savings of £26,000 if the service was cut.

The survey is active until October 24th and as usual we encourage anyone and everyone to take part. For those who fancy doing the consultation, it can be found on the Wrexham Council website here.