Wrexham MP questions power of full council after Citizens Advice service motion deferred

Wrexham’s MP has called for answers on the future of the local Citizen’s Advice service after calls for a funding boost were “deferred without discussion” to the council’s executive board.

The Grosvenor Road office, which handled more than 16,000 cases in 2017-18, has had its core funding phased out by Wrexham Council over the past two years and will close this summer if no more funds are forthcoming.

Last month Wrexham.com reported that members of the council’s Labour Group had put submitted a ‘Notice of Motion’ calling for a £50,000 funding boost to stop the service’s “imminent closure”.

However the motion was ‘deferred without discussion’ at May’s annual meeting of council and will instead be considered at an Executive Board meeting on Tuesday 12th June.

Mr Lucas, who has led a campaign to save the service, has since written to the council to ask for more information about why the matter was referred back to the executive board, which made the initial decision to phase out funding back in 2015.

In his letter Mr Lucas said: “What powers does the full council now have? It appears that the motion to provide funding to the Citizens Advice service was withdrawn and referred back to the executive board, without a vote, because it was deemed that the issue had been delegated to the executive board previously.

“Is it, therefore, the case that the full council has delegated all of its powers to the executive board and has no supervisory jurisdiction? Or is it just in this particular case?”

Citing a recent stall in the town centre where signatures were collected for a petition to ‘save the Citizens Advice office’ Mr Lucas said: “The response from the public was overwhelmingly supportive and the message is clear – we don’t want to lose our Citizens Advice service”

“Wrexham is now the only council in Wales which cannot find money to help fund its Citizens Advice service, something I find to be completely unacceptable.

“The expertise staff provide free of charge helps thousands of people every year and losing such a service would have severe impact on the welfare of the people in this town.”

A decision on whether £50,000 will be allocated to the Citizens Advice service will be made at the Executive Board on Tuesday 12th June.

Previously such a discussion was held in ‘Part 2’ private session, where the public gallery is cleared before discussions take place.