Consultation into plans to increase councillor numbers in Wrexham temporarily suspended

A consultation over proposals to increase councillor numbers in Wrexham by three, has been suspended.

The Local Democracy and Boundary Commission for Wales unveiled the first stage of its review of Wrexham and have published a set of draft proposals earlier this year.

The proposals could well be in place for the 2022 local council elections in Wrexham, and would see councillor numbers increase from the current 52 to 55 – along with changes to several wards across the county borough.

Councillors had been set to oppose the plans at a meeting of full council yesterday afternoon. However the meeting has been cancelled following the new government advice on social distancing.

In a statement the Local Democracy and Boundary Commission for Wales announced that it had decided to suspend its consultation in relation to its draft proposals for the future electoral arrangements the county borough.

The statement adds: “The Commission has been made aware that Wrexham County Borough Council is focusing its resources on the emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic and it is unable to respond the Commission’s draft report.

“The Council has requested that the Commission take steps to enable the Council to respond once its normal operations are restored.

“In the light of this request and the potential difficulties for other consultees due to the current pandemic, the Commission is suspending the consultation in relation to its Wrexham draft proposals with effect from 24 March 2020.

“At present, the Commission intends to re-start this consultation on 15 June 2020. A suspension until that date will provide a window of 12 weeks for Wrexham County Borough Council and other consultees to adjust their working arrangements in order to be able to respond to the Commission’s consultation.

“Before 15 June 2020 the Commission will review the position in the light of wider developments and will provide further notice to consultees.

“The Commission will restart its consultation only once it is satisfied that consultees have had sufficient opportunity to mitigate the disruption to their ability to respond due to the current pandemic.

“When the consultation period re-starts, there will remain a period of 13 days forinterested parties to submit representations to the Commission in relation to the Wrexham draft report.

“After this period the Commission will consider all the representations it has received, prepare Final Recommendations and submit these to Welsh Government.”