Ty Pawb “needs to be sustainable” as council ‘revisits every service, every building and every area’ for savings

The leader of Wrexham Council has warned that all services “must wash their face” in future as the local authority looks to achieve a balanced budget.

It follows figures being released which show that the Ty Pawb arts, markets and community hub in Wrexham is facing a forecasted budget pressure of £298,000.

A report being presented to executive board members next week highlights lower than expected income levels and increased energy costs of £144,000 as the main causes for the shortfall.

The finances of the council-run centre were recently raised as an area of concern by councillors after they attempted to probe the financial hole – although members of a scrutiny committee were critical of the lack of information provided.

With those figures now being detailed in the budget lines in the forthcoming Executive Board meeting, Wrexham.com asked for an update on “discussions” between executive board members which were previously mentioned in regards to the facility and what that might mean for its future.

Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday, Council Leader Mark Pritchard said: “What we’ve done with Ty Pawb and every other service area is that we’ve scrutinised it as lead members and then it’s gone back to scrutiny committees.

“We will revisit it and we have to revisit every service, every building and every area to make savings.

“Every service has to wash its face and there has been big increases in energy, not just in Ty Pawb but across the council.”

We then asked whether this meant the previous decision to keep running Ty Pawb in-house in the short term could be reviewed.

While Cllr Pritchard said this was still the authority’s intention, his long term preference would be to see it run by an external body.

He said: “I think the decision to keep it in house at this moment in time is supported.

“But in the future, I’ve said that our preferred option was to not run the facility ourselves and I’m probably still at the same place with this without a doubt.

“That will take a bit of work and what will happen now, not just in Ty Pawb but everywhere, is that everything will be revisited and looked at to see if there are savings to be made.

“The frankness of it is that any service that doesn’t deliver and where costs are an issue, we’ll have to revisit it.

“A political decision will have to be made in lots of areas in the future and lots of services.

“Ty Pawb is popular at the moment in terms of political discussions at scrutiny and there’s a spotlight on it.

“We have discussed it at a senior level, like we’ve will discussed lots of areas, and we’ll see what the outcome is.”

Scrutiny committee members heard earlier this month how a total of 16 mitigation measures were being explored to help plug Ty Pawb’s financial gaps. ‌​‌‌​​​‌‍‌​‌​‌‌‌​‍‌​​​‌​‌‌‍‌​​​‌‌​‌‍‌​​‌‌‌‌​‍‌​​‌‌‌​​‍‌​​‌​‌​​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​​‌‌​‌​‍‌​​‌‌‌​​‍‌‌​​‌‌​‌‍‌‌​​‌‌​​

They included:- ‌​‌‌​​​‌‍‌​‌​‌‌‌​‍‌​​​‌​‌‌‍‌​​​‌‌​‌‍‌​​‌‌‌‌​‍‌​​‌‌‌​​‍‌​​‌​‌​​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​​‌‌​‌​‍‌​​‌‌‌​​‍‌‌​​‌‌​‌‍‌‌​​‌‌​​

• A review of Ty Pawb’s opening hours to ‘ensure effective financial programming”
• Conduct a market rent review to ensure Tŷ Pawb remains competitive in its approach
• Identify actions to reduce the carbon footprint and associated utility costs of Ty Pawb
• Dedicate increased marketing resource to venue hire across the organisation
• Convert the maker space into a rentable retail unit aimed at a creative business, in order to maximise rental income and streamline services
• Introduce a tiered charging framework for the performance space
• Increase the number of specialist fairs (record fairs, craft fairs etc), which generate more table hire revenue and significant increase in footfall

Deputy council leader David A Bithell also reiterated the need for the centre to reach a balanced budget position.

He said: “To be fair to everybody, the concept of Ty Pawb is absolutely fantastic.

“Where we need to be is that it needs to be sustainable. I think everybody recognises at the moment it’s not sustainable and we need to get it to a place where it is.

“Officers are doing a lot of work behind the scenes to try and get it sustainable.

“Clearly if if any service is not sustainable then they’re under review and it’s as simple as that.

“That’s the conundrum we’re in at the moment. If it’s not sustainable, you either cease it, stop it or close it.”

More detail on council finances in this report here.