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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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

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.