Council detail how they expect Wrexham to be affected by two week strike action

Wrexham Council are expecting disruption to some services for two weeks from September 4 after strike action was called by Unite.

The full impact is yet to be known, however the local authority has said they expect some key services to be affected – they say:

Waste and recycling collections
It’s possible that bin collections will be affected, but we don’t know for sure.

As a result, we’re asking people to put their bins and recycling out as normal on their collection days, but to bear with us if some bins aren’t emptied.

If a collection hasn’t taken place by 3.30pm, please remove your bins and recycling from their collection point. We won’t be able to collect missed bins.

We’ll do our best to respond and manage the situation as it unfolds, and we’ll do our best to keep you updated through our email bin notifications. You can sign up for these notifications via the council website.

Our Household Recycling Centres, where pre-sorted materials can be taken for recycling, will be open as normal. Please check opening times.

Housing repairs
Some of the services we provide to housing tenants might be affected – for example, our housing repairs service.

Again, we don’t know the full extent, but if you need to report a repair, please bear with us, as it might take us longer than usual to respond.

We’ll need to prioritise emergencies, and will do our upmost to respond to emergencies within a timely manner.

Street cleaning
Some of our street cleaning schedules will be impacted.

Highways and grounds maintenance

Road repairs and grounds maintenance could be affected. We’ll try to prioritise jobs where possible.

Wrexham Council have also indicated they are “prepared to discuss pay related issues with Unite as long as it follows the normal process for pay negotiations which are collectively with all local authorities co-ordinated by the national employers (including the Welsh Local Government Association) and involving all recognised trade unions. We are committed fully to work with the unions around social partnership and would want to ensure any negotiations follow the strong principles and coordinated approaches that have worked well over a number of years.”

As well as areas affected they have also listed other areas of council services that are expected to be ‘largely unaffected’, namely the Tour of Britain event on Monday as well as the following:

Schools – open as usual (Unite have stated that the strike action won’t be targeted at schools)
Libraries – open as usual
Customer services / Contact Wrexham – open as usual
Council buildings, including Ty Pawb and Wrexham Museum – open as usual
Household Recycling Centres – open as usual
Registrars services – open as usual
Social care services – operating as usual
Planning services – operating as usual
Environmental health – operating as usual
Crematorium and cemetery – currently anticipate little disruption.

Ian Bancroft, Wrexham Council’s Chief Executive, said: “The strike action by Unite members is a result of the NJC national pay negotiations and is not unique to Wrexham.

“We’ve been trying to assess the potential impact and will make every effort to minimise disruption for local people.

“However, in many cases we won’t really know the full impact until the day of the strikes.

“We’ll be managing the situation and will aim to keep residents and customers informed about any changes to services.”