Plaid Cymru councillors to put forward alternative Council budget proposals – invites ‘crowdsourced alternatives’

Plaid Cymru councillors in Wrexham are to put forward alternative budget proposals after challenging elements of the council leadership’s proposed cuts to services, inviting people to get in touch as they ‘crowdsource alternatives’.

Earlier this week Wrexham.com reported that the 10 members of the Executive Board had unanimously agreed to launch a ‘Difficult Decisions’ public consultation regarding their proposals to find £13 million of savings over the next two years.

The five week consultation, which officially launched on Wednesday, features proposed cuts to school music service, library service, PCSO funding and demolishing or selling Crown Buildings (to name but a few!)

However at this week’s meeting all three Plaid Cymru councillors challenged senior councillors over a number of proposals put forward in the Difficult Decisions consultation.

Queensway Cllr Carrie Harper questioned the board on why “relevant parts of the budget” had to been sent to the relevant scrutiny committees.

Cllr Harper was told that committee members have the opportunity to request for any information they wish to scrutinise – something which Cllr Harper said she and other councillors “intend to remedy”.

Questions were also asked over a funding shortfall in the consultation and why cuts to senior councillor and officers salaries did not feature as part of the consultation, and why there were not more options on the table to give the public a choice.

At the time Lead member for Communities, Partnerships, Public Protection and Community Safety, Cllr Hugh Jones noted that “there are no no-go areas in terms of consideration”, and encouraged all councillors and the public to bring forward proposals for consideration.

In a statement published after the meeting, Plaid Cymru group leader Marc Jones said the public should have “all options on the table to make an informed decision” before any cuts / changes to services are made.

Cllr Jones continued: “The public consultation lasts until the end of November and local residents are being asked their views on a range of proposals that could save the council £4.2m. But the council is having to make £6.2m in savings next year so the full range of cuts have not been presented to either councillors or the general population.

“When challenged, officers stated that any shortfall would be addressed in January, but that will be too late for the public to have their say. Plaid Cymru councillors believe the public should have all the options on the table to make an informed decision rather than being kept in the dark about a significant part of any potential cuts.

“We’re told this is about ‘difficult decisions’ and yet there is nothing in the budget cuts proposals about councillors or senior management sharing in these cuts. Councillors shouldn’t be immune from the cuts, but it seems that is the situation in Wrexham.

“The emphasis in these proposals is very much on cutting frontline services and expecting the most vulnerable – the young, the old and disabled – to pay more.”

Cllr Jones said the Plaid Cymru group of councillors have since said they would be putting forward alternative proposals and said they welcomed input from council workers, service users and everyone with a positive suggestion to maintain and improve frontline services.

Cllr Jones added: “In the past, council staff have seen consultants being paid millions to state the obvious in terms of savings.

“If council staff and service users want to talk to us in confidence about alternatives to these punitive cuts they believe could be made, then our door is open – contact us at [email protected] or text or call me on 07747 792441.”

There are a number of ways you can let Wrexham Council know what you think of its Difficult Decisions proposals:

– Please complete the survey – either online or in paper version to say what extent you agree with the proposals Wrexham Council are making.
– There will be more detailed consultations conducted with service users for some of these proposals – which will also contribute to the decision making process.
– You could also write to ‘Tell Us What You Think’. 3rd Floor Annex. The Guildhall. Wrexham. LL11 1AY
– Or email [email protected] (please mark your correspondence ‘Difficult Decisions’)

The responses submitted will ‘help the decision making process’ for the new budget in January / February 2018.

You have until November 30th to fill in the Difficult Decisions consultation.