In accordance with the Gambling Act 2005, the statement of licensing policy is a very important part of the architecture of local gambling regulation and it is expected that licensing authorities will use it to set out the local issues, priorities and risks that inform and underpin its approach to local regulation.

It provides the opportunity for licensing authorities to agree and set out how gambling is to be managed in different parts of the local authority area to deal with local concerns and issues. It provides clarity of expectation for licensees and prospective licensees about how their businesses are likely to be treated in different localities. The existence of a clear and agreed policy statement will provide greater scope for licensing authorities to work in partnership with local businesses, communities, and responsible authorities to identify and mitigate local risks to the licensing objectives.

Once published the Statement of Licensing Policy shall (subject to any further reviews and consultation) be in force for a further period of three years.

Where the policy statement is reviewed and changes proposed, licensing authorities must consult on any revision.  

We found out the opinion of stakeholders.

Helped inform Council policy.

Wrexham County Borough Council provides many services to you, whether you live here, work here or are just visiting, such as: schools, waste collection, social care, council housing, planning services, roads, museums, country parks, trading standards. The council also  supports local community and economic development.

Our vision for the future is that all the people that live here are supported to fulfil their potential, prosper and achieve a high standard of well-being.  We will be a strong and inclusive community leader to help make this happen. 

Our Council Plan 2023-2028

Our new Council Plan will outline our priorities for the next five years to help us achieve our vision, to contribute to Wales’ well-being goals, and to ensure that everybody is treated fairly.  We want to identify specific outcomes on which we can focus and against which we can measure progress.  These are the outcomes which we believe will be of most benefit to our communities.

Our Council Plan is our key strategic document for the next five years and will inform decisions about how we allocate financial and other resources.  Our other important services will still be delivered and details about those will be included within our internal business and service plans.

Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) are intended to deal with nuisance or problems in an area that cause harm to the quality of life of the local community. The power to make a Public Spaces Protection Order was given to Councils by the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

An ‘order’ places restrictions and requirements on certain behaviour in an area. The order can last up to three years. The Council can – after further consultation – extend it for another three-year period.

It will be a criminal offence not to stick to the order, and you can either get a fixed penalty notice of £100 or be prosecuted, which could lead to a fine of up to £1,000.

Why is a PSPO put in place?

A PSPO can be introduced if the relevant behaviour is having, or is likely to have, a detrimental effect on the quality of life of people in the area. The behaviour has to be ongoing or happening regularly, be unreasonable, and its impact must be such that the restrictions and requirements should be put in place.

Background to consultation  

In October 2014 the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime  and Policing Act 2014 (the Act) introduced new powers relevant to tackling Anti-Social Behaviour. In January 2020 the Executive Board approved the implementation of a 3 year Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) in Wrexham, identified by the area within the orange boundary on the map (from now on referred to as the relevant area).

The legislation states that the maximum time a PSPO can be implemented for is three years, before requiring a review. There are no restrictions on the number of times the PSPO can be reviewed and re-implemented.

The Public Space Protection Order to date, has supported the Council and its partners in our approach to address a number of specific concerns related to anti-social behaviour in the relevant area and to encourage vulnerable people to access support and services, seeking to break the cycle of behaviour and vulnerability they can be locked into.

By not addressing concerns effectively it is clear that there is risk to the quality of life of residents, a risk to the reputation of Wrexham, including loss of trade and attractiveness to new businesses, and subsequently a reduction in visitors/tourists to the area.  

We found that a high proportion of respondents agreed with the proposals that were consulted on. 

The results of the consultation were reported to the Executive board for members determination on the final PSPO, which was made as proposed but for the omission of one condition, around the carrying of paraphanalia, due to Public Health considerations.

The final report and decisions can be found via the following link.

 https://moderngov.wrexham.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=129&MID=8671&LLL=0#AI15801

Wrexham County Borough Council has a responsibility to assess the community’s toilet provision needs and to put a plan in place to address the findings.  For the purpose of this survey and strategy, the term toilet includes changing facilities for babies and changing places facilities for people with disabilities. These can be located in public buildings such as libraries and community centres, private buildings such as cafes and shops as well as public toilets maintained by the council. The council is seeking the views of residents, visitors to the County Borough and private enterprises.

In Wales we have ambitious plans for the public sector to be carbon neutral by 2030 and in response to our declaration of a Climate and Ecological Crisis in 2019, we have developed a plan for the decarbonisation of council services. As part of our plan, we want to work with people who live and work in Wrexham to increase awareness and understanding of the changes we all have to make and to support people with those changes, in especially in light of the current energy and cost of living crisis.

Towards the end of 2022 we developed an online survey to find out some key information from people that live and work in Wrexham around climate change and decarbonisation. The survey attracted a response from 581 people and the results will support us in our decarbonisation planning and communication going forward. The result of the survey are contained in this report and we have used this data to form some initial conclusions and identify some trends.

We also asked people to provide us with the email contact if they were willing to engage further to support our climate change and decarbonisation planning and activity in the future.  In response to this request we received 322 positive responses.

We last consulted with you and revisited our involvement strategy in 2018. It’s time to revisit the strategy and give it a refresh to reflect where we are now and we’d really like you to get involved in helping us shape this piece of work.

Wrexham Council has made significant progress in improving Involvement with the public in recent years, and have been commended by Audit Wales for work in this area. Some improvements and achievements include:  

• Developing a more seamless approach to our involvement activities, including improvements to our Your Voice Wrexham consultation portal to make it easier to use, and improving the quality and timeliness of feedback to yourselves on consultation and engagement activities
• Maintaining engagement with our communities over the period of the Covid-19 pandemic and re-energising engagement as we have emerged from the pandemic.  (e.g. in 2019/20 WCBC carried out 42 consultations on ‘Your Voice Wrexham’ – with around 12,241 responses received.  In 2020/21 we carried out 38 online consultations, with around 6,859 responses received. In 2021/22 we carried out 54 online consultations with around 10,203 responses received)
• Improving engagement with people who have protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, in line with our commitment to ‘reduce inequalities in representation and voice’.

We know that we’ve made significant progress in this area, however there is more we can do, to do ‘involvement’ well, together, and we want to work with you to develop these plans. 

If you would like to download a full copy of our draft strategy, please click on the link: Download draft Involvement Strategy 2022-2027.

Wrexham Council is committed to listening and working together with the people of Wrexham. Good Involvement means that everyone in our community feels they can join the discussion about the services we design and deliver; and can help shape the future of Wrexham County Borough. We hope by taking this approach the future of services in Wrexham will be focussed on what matters most to the people of Wrexham and that people will feel they can have their say and to work with us to make things happen together.

Having drafted our Involvement Strategy; public consultation has been undertaken, in order to present our new Involvement Strategy to members of our community and our partners and to seek their feedback.

This has enabled us to revise our strategy in line with the feedback we have received, so that we can be confident our new Involvement Strategy reflects the views of our stakeholders, who we hope will work with us in the future on our involvement journey to shape services together.

The Welsh Government passed a law which means all councils in Wales must carry out an investigation into the time and space children have for playing or hanging out in their local area.

By filling in the survey below you will be helping us to build a picture of what its like for children playing in Wrexham. We will then use the information to find ways of protecting and improving the time and space children have for playing or hanging out

Wrexham’s Play Sufficiency Assessment 2022 recognises the progress made since 2012 with many examples included that illustrate a strategic response to the Play Sufficiency Duty. Notably, in June 2018 Wrexham’s Executive Board agreed to support the authority’s Play Pledge which commits departments and service areas to value the importance of children’s play.

Whilst significant progress has been made, the Play Sufficiency Assessment 2022 identifies thirteen priorities which underpin Wrexham’s approach for securing play sufficiency for children in Wrexham for the next 3 years

• Priority 1: Increase time for playing during term-time
• Priority 2: Enhance opportunities for playing in Winter
• Priority 3: Secure safer streets for play
• Priority 4: Secure a wider range of spaces for play
• Priority 5: Secure spaces for play in close proximity to children’s homes
• Priority 6: Secure and maintain quality play provision
• Priority 7: Secure a greater range of provision for teenagers
• Priority 8: Improve children’s subjective experience of time and space in adult supervised provision
• Priority 9: Enable parents to identify ways in which they can support children’s play
• Priority 10: Improve support for disabled and marginalised children
• Priority 11: Improve generalised negative attitudes towards teenagers and their play
• Priority 12: Ensure children have easy access to friends
• Priority 13: Enable communities to identify ways in which they can support children’s play

Wrexham County Borough Council is currently consulting for stakeholder opinion on Rear Loading Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles, and their potential suitability for licensing as Hackney Carriages.

Introduction

The licensing authority has a set criteria in terms of hackney carriage vehicle safety certification and any licensed vehicle must meet stringent tests in terms of road safety and fitness for purpose. Rear Loading Wheelchair accessible Vehicles are currently available for licensing as Private Hire Vehicles but not for Hackney Carriage use.

Hackney Carriages

Unlike Private Hire Vehicles, Hackney carriages must be suitable for collecting wheelchair users from a ‘Hackney Carriage Rank’. A rank is collection point, whereby licensed Hackney Vehicles may queue and wait in turn for customers to approach the rank. There are several Hackney Carriage Ranks in the county area and these are all located within Wrexham Town Centre. All customers enter the vehicles via the side of the vehicle, with Wheelchair users using an access ramp.

Hackney Carriages also have the permission to be ‘hailed down, by pedestrians in the street.

We were able to find out the views of stakeholders on the proposal/topic outlined in the consultation

It has enabled the licensing committee to make an informed decision on the proposal/topic outlined in the consultation.

In, March 2020 we ran a consultation to find out how the Covid pandemic had affected young people in Wrexham and Flintshire, this supported the work of the Public Service Boards, Wrexham Youth Service and Flintshire Integrated Youth Provision which helped with the recovery plans to support young people’s wellbeing and mental health.

This consultation highlights the need for us to re- think about how we support young people going forward after the pandemic, looking at the results, the majority of young people need more support and help now than they did between March 2020 and during the pandemic. As we come out of the Covid pandemic is clear to see young people are still struggling with the effects of last 2 years and the toll on their mental health and wellbeing and seem to be getting worse. 

We have all as a society changed due to the pandemic, the impact has affected everyone’s lives in one way or another. However It is clear that young people are finding it harder than others to be able to move on, there mental health and wellbeing has been challenged with very little or no support over the previous lockdowns.

These results reflect what young people have gone and still going through.                                                    

Furthermore, this consultation process will help WCBC and Flintshire Council to produce new and innovative ideas, by keeping services current and thriving. It will help enhance relationships with service users and further develop knowledge of their wants and needs. It has provided us with direct live feedback from young people and will enhance a closer connection within our communities.

Everyone wants to make Wrexham a place where families, children and young people can achieve their potential.

We know all parents/carers  want the best for the children and young people on, we also  know that sometimes families, children and young people need support to help achieve their potential, their hopes and their dreams, and to support them when times are tough.

This consultation is about asking you about what you think, as you are the expert about you and your needs.