Wrexham Council are committed to getting things right and better in the future on Welsh language use

Wrexham Council say they are making good progress in implementing Welsh language standards, but acknowledge that there are areas where they need to monitor closely to ensure future compliance.

Councillors are set to formally accept and approve the Council’s Welsh Language Annual Monitoring Report, that details progress on their use of the language, and also details issues that have been raised.

The report before Councillors explains, “Over the last 12 months the Council has made good progress and has been successful in recruiting into Welsh essential posts and the delivery of a comprehensive programme of Welsh language events throughout the year.

“However, it acknowledges that there are still challenges and instances of noncompliance in the form of investigations from the Welsh Language Commissioner as well as complaints from members of the public. All such instances are thoroughly investigated and remedial actions are put in place where required”

Council Chief Exec Ian Bancroft told us the work at a leadership and managerial level was doing more about the awareness of the standards, with current focus on signage and the council’s website.

External translation is still being used for what was described as ‘minor’ changes, to ensure standards are met rigourously.

We asked if there were any stand out issues from the report, and were told “Those areas are generally the areas we are really focusing on now, around signage and website. We are listening, and listening to the complaints. We absolutely pick up on those and improve our processes.

“We are seeing a positive direction of travel. There will always be mistakes in life, but we have to get to the stage of that being proportionate, and that is what we are working really hard to do.”

“What we are doing is emphasising our commitment. It not about not recognising we have not got things right at certain times, but the important thing is not to just say sorry about that, but ‘we are committed to getting things right and better in the future’ ”

As the report notes, in 2018/19 the Council was the subject of an in-depth investigation into a lack of compliance with its signage and further information, with Cllr Hugh Jones publicly apologising.

As usual the report outlines the complaints made to the council, with details on how they were resolved.

In addition, the Council has been the subject of investigations that have been instigated by the Commissioner in response to complaints made directly to her about alleged non-compliance on the Council’s part with regard to its Welsh language Standards.

A summary table is included in the report, viewable here, with 44 different issues noted with various statuses.

They include a complaint about not being able to register the birth of a child in Welsh when presenting for the appointment and a complaint that the Council used the English version of a customer’s address on an email.

A range of pending complaints are noted, with various social media accounts noted as being the subject of complaints along with other digital services.

The report adds, “…the Council was the subject of an in-depth investigation about its lack of compliance regarding signage. The investigation resulted in the Council having to comply with 9 enforcement actions. The Council has taken the appropriate steps to comply with the enforcement actions.”

The report gives the usual breakdown of traffic stats to the council’s website that explains that Welsh visitors are down slightly year on year.

During 2015/16 the numbers of Welsh visits to the home page:
English visitors 307,912
Welsh visitors 5,236
i.e. 1.7% in Welsh

During 2016/17 the numbers of Welsh visits to the home page:
English visitors 291,423
Welsh visitors 4,726
Which equates to 1.6% in Welsh

During 2017/18 the numbers of Welsh visits to the home page
English Visitors 394,782
Welsh Visitors 5,976
i.e. 1.5% in Welsh

During 2018/19 the numbers of Welsh visits to the home page
English Visitors 349,782
Welsh Visitors 3,749
i.e. 1.1% in Welsh

Contact Centre calls are also noted, but this year also includes all switchboard calls to the Welsh line. In 2015/16 there were 215 calls/visits in Welsh – and now in 2018/19 that has shot up to 3,024. However the trend is reversed on Contact Centre emails with 166 in Welsh in 2015/16 and just 16 in 2018/19.

Social media also gets a breakdown, that shows the growth of the council’s Twitter and Facebook pages. In 2015/16 the Council’s Facebook page had 5,010 likes for its English page and 85 likes for its Welsh page. For 2018/19 that is up to English 9,435 / 480 Welsh.

Twitter is listed as 15,085 followers on the English account and 374 followers on the Welsh on in 2015/16, and the current figures have that as 20,051 / 950 respectively.

The ‘very successful’ St. David’s Day event this year, with the parade ending in Tŷ Pawb, is referenced with over 3,600 attending. That is deemed ‘excellent’ as it was held on a school holiday – with a note ‘…this bodes well for next year’s event which will be held on a Sunday’.