Wrexham Council Cuts Detailed For First Time

Further to our story this morning based off the ‘media briefing’ of the Council’s Executive Board debate on cuts, the full report is now out.

The PDF of the report being put forward to Councillors can be found on the Wrexham.gov.uk site here.

The document details near £10,000,000 of savings, including:

• Closure of 103 playgrounds or transfer to community councils saving £87,000
• Review of community centres – closure or transfer to community councils to save £129,000
• Library Review – closure of 3 libraries.
• 5% reduction to the highways maintenance saving £107,000
• Cessation of subsidised bus services saving £455,000
• Reduce the frequency of the street cleansing service.
• Cease school crossing patrols or transfer to community councils saving £77,000
• Homelessness – planned reduction in the use of temporary accommodation including B&B’s saving £100,000
• Review and Retender Domiciliary Care – review all packages , with projected savings of £1 million over three years.
• Review / reprovide outreach for mental health clients saving £50,000
• 14 – 19 Course Review with Yale – reduction in the number of courses offered.
• Special Needs packages concluding.
• School Music and Library Services mentioned, no detail of changes.
• Schools to now fund their own redundancy costs.
• No further Twinning visits will be made, to save £9000.
• Introduce a 2.5% fee for payments by credit cards for payments to the Council.
• The Connect magazine is being moved to ‘web only’ or reduced in scale.
• Call answering could change to more automated systems.
• The report also states that ‘sickness’ will be cut, there is no detail on how this will occur but we assume there has been no Council medical breakthroughs they have kept quiet.

For those who wish to read the full list you can find it in the PDF here.

There is a Wrexham.com forum thread which was started at the time of a previous article, entitled “Oct 16th D-Day – Examples Of Possible Council Cuts” you can view it and join in the debate by clicking here.

This morning we also had a press release from the Council highlighting a celebration of 60 years of school crossing patrols, as highlighted for cessation above.

The release says “The Mayor of Wrexham, Councillor David I Bithell MBE presented staff representing the 22 school crossing patrols with and a special commemorative badge and certificate to mark the milestone at an informal ceremony held at the Guildhall on 6th November 2013”

“Among those who attended the celebration were Wrexham’s longest serving crossing patrols, Sue Lee and Sharon Ditcher who have both been with the service for over 20 years.”

Sue, who helps children cross the road at Hafod Y Wern in Caia Park, has also received a special Community Award in recognition for her commitment and support to residents in the local community. Sue said: “I’ve been helping children cross the road for 20 years and really enjoy it – you see them growing up and then their children are crossing with me.”

Sharon who helps children at Rhosddu Primary School cross a busy road said: “I really enjoy the job. The children always cheer me up and they know I am there to help them.”

Paying tribute to all the staff, Councilor Bob Dutton OBE, Lead Member for the Environment said:

“School crossing patrols provide a very important service and play a valuable role in our local communities.”

It appears the discussion of how important such services are and how valuable the roles are will be decided on Tuesday.