Council Unveil Budget Proposals: 200 Job Cuts, Council Tax Up… & Open New Pet Crematorium

Wrexham Council have published their draft proposals on future savings and new revenue generation as they try to cut £45 million over the next three years.

This year’s consultation is scheduled to run for six weeks until 27th October. Whilst the exact figure the Council needs to find in savings is estimated in the region of £15.5 million, this cannot be confirmed until the Welsh Government announces the final funding settlement from central government and various national spending reviews are complete, probably in December or as late as January meaning any late changes could result in further cuts.

Documents released for next week’s Executive Board meeting outline proposes savings and income generation for the next financial year. The items within the report are not set in stone and are subject to debate by members at next week’s meeting, however it is quite rare to see anything on Executive Board agendas not be passed and will likely make it to the final consultation to be released shortly.

The proposed cuts come as a result of the ongoing ‘reshaping of services’ and attempt to make savings of £45m over the next few years.

Among the proposed financial savings, and methods of revenue raising are:-

• Increase Council Tax by 5% – Generate £836,000 pa in additional income.
• Reduction of nursery provision for four year olds in line with statutory requirements – Reduction of free provision to two hours a day instead of 2.5.
• Outsourcing services such as housing stock inspections – Could generate savings of £163,000 pa
• Review of housing repair service – Could generate £700,000 pa
• Changes to sheltered accommodation services – Could generate savings of £50,000
• Review of blue badge car parking / introduce charging in Council car parks for those people who possess a blue badge – Could generate £40,000 pa
• Open a pet crematorium service to generate income.
• Review of 24 hour stray dog service – no longer provide night time service
• Planning: Reviewing the current process, to include a new fast track service – Could generate £5,000 a year
• Increase costs of weddings and civil ceremonies at The Guildhall
• Shut down of administrative bases at Christmas – Generate approximate savings of between £5000 and £10,000 per annum
• Ceasing both online and print production of Wrexham Council’s ‘Connect’ Magazine (this line initially read Connect was going online only, however has since been corrected to say the production of the publication will be stopped entirely) – Estimated savings of £15,000 a year. 
• Review of Telecare Services – Could generate savings of £50,000

The full list and descriptions can be found in the Council PDF document here.

The biggest proposed reduction in spending focuses on a restructure of senior management and staffing, with 200 jobs at Wrexham Council currently under review. The staffing structures of all departments will also be looked at, along with different ways of working / service provision within the authority.

It is estimated that this could make combined savings of £11.9million per annum for Wrexham Council.

Lead Member Councillor Hugh Jones says that the financial challenge the council finds itself in, yet again and ongoing, means that ‘working with the public is crucial’.

Part of the consultation will be to ask members of the public for suggestions not already included, Mr Jones said: “We are trying to be better and smarter in how we deliver our services. We are asking the public to give us ideas that we have missed. We will go back to the public, and give evidence to how we have dealt with their responses.”

Referring to the feedback process this is described as ‘closing the loop’, and ‘you said, we did’.

Cllr Jones said: “Once again we are faced with making difficult decisions to meet the financial challenges that we face. Wrexham Council continues to reshape the way it delivers its’ services through efficiency savings, but the scale of what is required meant that we could not achieve this alone. The Council took the decision to work with an external partner, PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) to secure the best outcomes for our communities.

“It is important that we understand the Wrexham public’s views on the raft of budget proposals that we are putting forward as they are ultimately at the heart of everything we do.”

The consultation proposal layout has been been altered from previous years with a readable foreword from the Council Leader Mark Pritchard.

He makes it clear that these are draft proposals, and are subject to change: “The proposals presented within this consultation are at an early, formative stage, and consequently are initial estimates. However, we wanted to get you involved and hear your views as early as possible in this process, to ensure we are able to take these views into account when progressing ideas further.”

Previously some of the more controversial elements have been dropped from the final decisions.

The document also contains a graphic outlining where the Council spends its £233 million a year – roughly sourced from £53 million in council tax and £170 million from Welsh Government:

The main method for people taking part in the consultation survey to give their views on the budget proposals would be via an online or paper based feedback form. A consultation event will be carried out with representatives from all Town and Community Council’s, the Council’s Citizen’s panel ‘People’s Voice’, and other key consultation forums including the Senedd Yr Ifanc (Youth Parliament), Diversity Forum and the Over 50’s forum.

When the consultation closes all of the responses received will be collated and analysed and feedback to Councillors at a workshop on 24 November 2015 and Executive Board on 12 January 2016, so that they can be taken into account before Councillors make final decisions on next year’s budget at Full Council on 24 February 2016.

The proposals are due to be discussed by members of Wrexham’s Executive Board on Tuesday 15th September at 10am. For those who can’t attend you can watch the meeting live via web cast on the Wrexham Council website.