Calls for Wrexham Council to make meetings more “family friendly”

Plaid Cymru councillors are calling on Wrexham council to make meetings more “family friendly” by changing times that will suit parents.

The call comes after a “failure to elect significantly more women councillors” in the May elections.

Currently council meetings are staggered throughout the day, with executive boards taking place at 10am and various committees being held at either 2:30pm and 3pm.

Full council, planning and several scrutiny committees are held at 4pm.

Meeting times were changed seven years ago in 2015 when a series of ‘disadvantages’ to early evening meetings were outlined by the administration.

These included ‘increased costs in terms of heating and lighting, in the region of £1,500 per annum’ and ‘staff working long, unsociable hours to support evening meetings’.

Prior to that change executive board meetings were held at 2pm and planning committees began at 6:30pm.

However with council meetings set to return next week for the first time since March, members of the Plaid Cymru group have called for a review in the meeting times to help make them more “family friendly”.

Councillor Marc Jones, who leads the Plaid Cymru group, said: “One key issue that deters many parents of school-age children from standing for the council is the timing of meetings – the majority of council meetings start at 2pm or 4pm and that makes making the school run very difficult for many people.

“There’s nothing preventing meetings from starting later in the day or in the mornings and we would urge committee chairs to bear this in mind when they reconvene and decide on starting times for their committees.

“Making meetings more family friendly will help increase the diversity of the council in terms of age and gender. It’s disappointing that only a quarter of councillors are female and Plaid Cymru is the only group to achieve gender balance on the council.”

Just 14 women were elected to the council out of 56 in total. Of these, five are in the Plaid Cymru group of nine.

Wrexham was highlighted by ERS Cymru and Deryn ahead of the election for its lack of female representation and diversity in candidates.

43 women stood for election earlier this month out of 146 candidates.

Councillor Becca Martin, who represents Acton & Maesydre, said: “As a parent of a school-age child who typically finishes around 3pm, mid-afternoon meetings are generally the hardest time to attend. The usual 2pm or 4pm starts certainly feel like yet another barrier to parents in the same position.”

Councillor Carrie Harper, of Queensway ward, added: “The issue of meeting times and the barriers they create both for families and those who work is widely acknowledged, however it’s not been tackled to date.

“There’s also an issue for the public in terms of key meetings being webcast in the afternoon, when most people are in work and therefore can’t contribute or watch in real time.

“There’s an opportunity at the outset of a new council term to get this right.”