|
|
 |
Additional Licensing Scheme for Houses in Multiple Occupation |
Wrexham County Borough Council |
21 Apr 2016 |
27 May 2016 |
|
Why are we doing this?
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.
|
What we found out
|
What difference has it made?
|
|
|
|
 |
Reducing the incidents of Arson and Deliberate Fires across Wrexham County Borough |
Wrexham County Borough Council |
29 Apr 2016 |
22 May 2016 |
|
Why are we doing this?
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.
|
What we found out
|
What difference has it made?
|
|
|
|
 |
Wrexham CBC Draft Flood Risk Management Plan |
Wrexham County Borough Council |
05 Apr 2016 |
13 May 2016 |
|
Why are we doing this? The Flood Risk Regulations 2009 placed a responsibility on Lead Local Flood Authorities to develop a series of assessments, strategies and plans to manage Flood Risk at a local scale. Although there is no statutory obligation on Wrexham CBC to produce this plan, we have taken the opportunity to develop this plan to assist in providing a clear and consistent approach to managing flood risk across the County Borough.
|
What we found out
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.
|
What difference has it made?
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.
|
|
|
|
 |
Wrexham Citizens Panel |
Wrexham County Borough Council |
28 Jan 2016 |
05 Apr 2016 |
|
Why are we doing this?
To consult with members of Wrexham's Citizens' Panel, in order to inform key Council decisions, and service development. |
What we found out
|
What difference has it made?
|
|
|
|
 |
Wrexham Local Development Plan – Preferred Strategy Consultation |
Wrexham County Borough Council |
12 Feb 2016 |
01 Apr 2016 |
|
Why are we doing this?
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.
|
What we found out
|
What difference has it made?
|
|
|
|
 |
Implementation of Council Tax Premiums |
Wrexham County Borough Council |
16 Feb 2016 |
06 Mar 2016 |
|
Why are we doing this?
Background
From 1 April 2017, Wrexham Council would be able to charge a
premium of up to 100% of the standard rate of Council Tax on long term empty
homes and second homes. The Council is contemplating charging a premium of 50%
in respect of both long term empty and second homes. The purpose of this
consultation is to seek people’s views on these proposals, this consultation
closes on 6 March 2016.
What is a Long
Term Empty Home
- A long term empty home is defined as a dwelling
which is both empty and substantially unfurnished for a continuous period of at
least one year. In considering whether a dwelling has been empty for one year,
the council disregards any period prior to 1 April 2016, also any occupation of
less than 6 weeks is also disregarded.
What is a Second
Home
- A second home is defined as a dwelling which is
not an individual’s main home and is substantially furnished.
Why is the Council
considering charging a premium on these type of properties.
The intention to charge a premium on these type of
properties is to help the council bring long term empty homes back into use to
provide safe, secure and affordable homes, which forms part of the Councils
Local Housing Strategy.
If an owner of a long term empty property requires help in
the form of financial support to bring the property back into use, the council
may be able to help in the form of grants or loans and can provide information
on this area if required.
Are there exceptions
to avoid a premium being charged?
In a limited number of cases there are exceptions available
which mean that a long term empty property or second home may not be subject to
the premium for a specific period, some examples of where exceptions apply are
listed below for guidance:
- Dwelling being marketed for sale or let – would
be given an exception for a maximum of 1 year
- Annexe which forms part of a main dwelling
- Dwelling which is someone’s main residence if
they were not residing in armed forces accommodation
- Occupied caravan pitches and boat moorings
- Seasonal homes where year-round occupation is
prohibited
- Job related dwellings
There could be other factors also which the authority may
decide not to levy the premium, these will be considered as part of the decision
making process as to whether to charge a premium.
|
What we found out
|
What difference has it made?
|
|
|
|
 |
What is important to you? - Council Plan Consultation |
Wrexham County Borough Council |
14 Jan 2016 |
15 Feb 2016 |
|
Why are we doing this?
The Council has a plan that sets out what we want to achieve to make Wrexham a better place. Every year the Council refreshes this plan. We want the plan to be right, so we want to hear from local people.
The Council is facing ongoing budgets cuts and we are working hard to ensure the services we continue to provide whilst making savings are effective and efficient. Your views will help us decide where we should focus our efforts and resources across the Council Plan. The financial challenge means it is inevitable that the range and level of services we offer will reduce. What you tell us here will also help us identify where we can continue to save money in the years to come.
|
What we found out
The survey received just under 1000 responses. People also gave us their views on social media, at a consultation event, and through specific consultations with young people and people with protected characteristics. Thank you for taking the time to give us your views, the 'Key Findings' report below outlines the results of this consultation.
|
What difference has it made?
A really important part of any consultation is feeding back to the participants about what has happened since they gave their opinions and what effect their views have had. This process of feedback is about being able to show where views expressed have directly impacted on proposals, and also explaining when there are times we could not do everything suggested by the public, and explaining why. The ‘You Said, We Did’ report below highlights how the findings of the ‘What is important to you?’ consultation have informed the Council Plan for 2016/17.
|
|
|
|
![View more details for consultation Wrexham Council Draft Strategic Equality Plan [SEP] 2016-2020](https://www.yourvoicewrexham.com/images/purple_arrow_circle.gif) |
Wrexham Council Draft Strategic Equality Plan [SEP] 2016-2020 |
Wrexham County Borough Council |
11 Jan 2016 |
08 Feb 2016 |
|
Why are we doing this?
Wrexham LSB partners conducted a consultation in September/October 2015 to establish whether the current Equality Objectives were still relevant, needed amending or if anything should be added. Analysis of
the consultation feedback confirmed that the Council should continue to focus
on the existing Strategic Equality Objectives when implementing or further
developing the Council Plan and the Strategies and Plan that underpin it.
|
What we found out
|
What difference has it made?
|
|
|
|
 |
Welsh Language Consultation |
Wrexham County Borough Council |
11 Nov 2015 |
15 Jan 2016 |
|
Why are we doing this? To ensure that those who want to communicate with us in Welsh are able to do so |
What we found out
There were two main themes with regard to the feedback. Firstly, those choosing to contact the Council in Welsh via the contact centre stated that they were often disappointed that even though they opted for a Welsh language service that it was not available and that their call would be dealt with in English. Secondly, the lack of availability of Welsh speaking officers to deal with queries in Welsh in Council departments. Many acknowledged that staff were answering phones bilingually but felt frustrated that they couldn’t then continue with the call in Welsh. Even though officers were following the Council’s procedures with regard to dealing with calls in Welsh many of those who completed the questionnaire were dissatisfied with the lack of fluent Welsh speakers in the organisation
|
What difference has it made?
Since the survey was undertaken the Council has been served with its Final Compliance Notice from the Welsh Language Commissioner and the Standards have come into force. This has resulted in Welsh speaking customer service advisors being made available in the contact centre, both for dealing with customers face to face and over the phone. With regard to Welsh speaking officers in the workforce the Council continues to seek opportunities to recruit Welsh language speakers and the introduction of the Standards has resulted in a strengthening and improving the Council’s recruitment procedures which in turn will hopefully result in more posts being advertised as Welsh essential and filled by Welsh speakers. The Council has recently updated its list of Welsh speakers and all staff have been made aware of how to deal with calls in Welsh and how to contact our internal Welsh speakers. The Council actively seeks to recruit Welsh speakers and has been using different techniques/methods in order to try and reach as wide a Welsh speaking pool of potential recruits as is can and to provide as many opportunities as possible for Welsh essential posts to be filled by Welsh speakers.
|
|
|
|
 |
Equalities Objectives 2016-2020 |
North Wales Fire and Rescue Service |
16 Nov 2015 |
31 Dec 2015 |
|
Why are we doing this?
The Equality Act 2010 The General Public Sector Equality Duty (April 2011) The Equality Act 2010 amalgamated previous pieces of equality legislation, harmonising and strengthening equality legislation under one new Act. The Act includes a public sector equality duty that requires public sector bodies, in the exercise of their functions, to have due regard to the need to:
- Eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under this Act;
- Advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it;
- Foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.
The Equality Act lists a number of characteristics which must not be used as a reason to treat some people worse than others. These are the ‘protected characteristics’. The Equality Act 2010 (Statutory Duties) (Wales) Regulations 2011 There are also associated specific statutory equality duties for Wales (Equality Act 2010 (Statutory Duties) (Wales) Regulations 2011) that enable a public authority in Wales to meet the general duty. The broad purpose of the specific duties in Wales is to help listed bodies in their performance of the general duty and to aid transparency. |
What we found out
|
What difference has it made?
|
|
|