The LA has a statutory responsibility to ensure that there are suitable and sufficient school places available in Wrexham. By regularly reviewing the number of school places in Wrexham, the authority can address the changing forecast of demand and respond to rapid changes in demographics. This ensures that there are enough school places, of the right type, in the right location

Local authorities continue to face reductions in funding from Central Government, which means that Councils must continue to find ways to function and deliver services whilst budgets continue to reduce. In Wrexham we estimate that we need to save a further £5million over the next year. This is in addition to the £25million already saved over the last three years.

We are committed to delivering the services outlined in our Council Plan. We continue to look for ways to improve our services, making them more efficient in order to prioritise, as far as possible, our frontline services.  These improvements include modernising the way we work, and reviewing staffing levels and structures to reduce costs whilst effectively delivering our reshaped services. We are also committed to ensuring that we are able to answer your enquiries at the first point of contact wherever possible, and (in keeping with the world around us) increasing our online services.

More than 1,000 people took part in the consultation and gave their views about the proposals we made, as well as making some suggestions of their own.

We'd like to thank everyone who took part for their time.

The results from the consultation were presented to Elected Members in order to shape the decisions they made about Wrexham County Borough Council's budget for 2017/18.

The 'You Said, We Did' report details what decisions have been made about each of the proposals presented for consultation.

There are long-established practices in Welsh Local Authorities regarding how a service-users means should be treated when calculating their contributions (if any) towards the costs of their care. The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act  2014 imposes some mandatory changes on Local Authorities in this area but also allows for some discretion. Wrexham Council is now considering exercising some of this discretion.  

Any changes to the discretionary elements of the charging policy would be done to ensure fairness and equity for all service-users; would remove some long-standing anomalies; would go some way to redressing the negative financial impacts to the Council of the mandatory changes; and ensure that the best possible services are provided/procured for those who need them.      

For further information regarding the SS & WB (Wales) Act and what it says Council`s must and may do in relation to paying for Social Care, see –

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2014/4/contents/enacted and

http://gov.wales/topics/health/socialcare/act/code-of-practice/?lang=en

For Wrexham Council`s current (pre Act) policy and information regarding charging for Social Care provision, see

http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/assets/pdfs/social_services/leaflets/paying_for_socialcare_services.pdf and http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/assets/pdfs/social_services/leaflets/financial_information_guide.pdf

Proposed Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) The Town Centre, Wrexham and Bellevue Park Wrexham.

As a resident, visitor or business owner in the area it is likely that you will be aware of issues of anti-social behaviour which occur in these areas.

Examples of this behaviour include;

•Rough sleeping;

•Drug abuse; and intoxication from that

•Drinking alcohol and under the influence of such

North Wales Police, Wrexham County Borough Council and partner agencies have tried over the years to find a solution to this problem to alleviate the disturbance and detrimental effect on the quality of life of residents and also those who wish to use the park and/or visit the town centre.

In October 2014 the Anti-social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 was introduced. As part of this legislation comes the introduction of the Public Spaces Protection Order. (PSPO) This enables Local Authorities to impose prohibitions or requirements to specified areas to enable law abiding citizens to enjoy public areas without being affected by Anti-Social behaviour.

The new PSPO, will introduce additional prohibitions and will enable Officers from North Wales Police and designated officers within Wrexham County Borough Council to deal more robustly with offenders at the time of occurrence. The intention is to provide a deterrent to those considering participating in the activities outlined above. Officers will have the power to request people to leave, issue on the spot fines or report people for summons.

Following the Wrexham Town PSPO consultation on Your Voice Wrexham and other face to face consultations it was clear that the public were very supportive of a PSPO for the town centre, and were also supportive of the following prohibitions: 

• Behaviour causing harassment, alarm, nuisance or distress
• Consumption of alcohol or possession of an open container of alcohol
• Loitering in a state of intoxication or through drug induced activity
• Eating, drinking, inhaling, injecting, smoking or otherwise using intoxicating substances
• Urinating or defecating
• Sleeping in Kings Street bus station or public toilets during the hours of darkness

As a result of the consultation, the boundaries of the map were extended to pick up other areas where there had been evidence of anti social behaviour.   A result was taken to our Executive Board for approval of the Wrexham Town PSPO and the PSPO was put in place for 1^st August 2016.

Since the PSPO has been in place over 50 PSPO tickets have been given by North Wales Police and Council Enforcement Officers.  Public awareness of the Wrexham Town PSPO and how to report anti-social behaviour has also been raised.  The PSPO has been implemented along with other initiatives so support the visible vulnerable into recovery services.  A further report is due to Executive Board in early 2017 to update the public on the Wrexham town PSPO.

Wrexham County Borough Council is proposing to continue Additional Licensing to cover all Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) in the County Borough.

This public consultation document explains the Council’s proposal, how the scheme would work and the continued benefits of operating such a scheme. Anyone completing this questionnaire should read the consultation document to familiarise themselves with the proposed scheme.

Arson has been a recurring problem in Wrexham for a number of years.  There is a significantly higher level of deliberate fires in the county compared to the rest of North Wales over the past 5 years.  43% of all arson in the North Wales area occurred in Wrexham; increasing to 47% in 2015.

Wrexham’s Public Services Board (PSB), Partnership Delivery Board 3 has been awarded £10,000 from the Police and Crime Commissioner to support the development of an action plan to reduce arson offences in Wrexham.

Partners are already working together to develop responses to address this issue, this one-off funding may be used to enhance the current provision.

An important part of this work will be to educate and raise awareness of the negative impacts of arson so that we can influence behaviour change, and reduce the number of incidents across Wrexham.

A public and stakeholder consultation on the draft Flood Risk Management Plan was undertaken for a 6 week period between 7 April and 12 May 2016. The consultation was made available publically through the yourvoicewrexham.co.uk website, with supporting press release and direct email correspondence to in excess of 100 Councillors, Community Councils and stakeholders. A total of 18 responses were received in relation to the consultation, with the majority of respondents considering the Flood Risk Management Plan did contain clear objectives for the future management of flood risk within the County Borough and highlighted the highest risks to the County Borough.

Minor amendments have been incorporated into the plan, including an additional action plan to review and provide clarity with regards to the use, availability and distribution of sandbags. A summary of the consultation questionnaire and responses received is contained within Appendix D (http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/assets/pdfs/flooding/flood_risk_management_plan.pdf) of the final flood risk management plan, this also considers responses to individual submissions.

To consult with members of Wrexham's Citizens' Panel, in order to inform key Council decisions, and service development.

Preferred Strategy Consultation

The Preferred Strategy is the first formal publication in the Local Development Plan (LDP) preparation process. It sets out the broad approach that the LDP intends to take in order to ensure that the County is developed in a sustainable manner. It provides the strategic framework for the more detailed policies, proposals and land use allocations which will subsequently be included in the Deposit LDP.

The Preferred Strategy Public Consultation represents an opportunity for everyone in the plan area and beyond to think about how the places people live, work, learn in and visit should develop over the plan period to 2028.