Who is this consultation aimed at?

If you have an interest in the future of North Wales Fire and Rescue Service, then this consultation is aimed at you. 

Every year, before deciding on its plan for the following year, North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority invites comments on a particular subject.  The ideas, insights and different points of view that people contribute can be really helpful for making sure that the Authority’s plan for the following year is a good one. 

You don’t need to be an expert in environmental issues to respond.  All that the Authority asks is that you think seriously about the issues and submit your views, ideas or information by the deadline. 

What is this consultation about?

This year the Authority is asking about developing a long-term Environment and Sustainability Strategy.  What do you think that Strategy should include?  What should be at the forefront of the Authority’s thinking in terms of planning for the next 20 or 30 years?  What ideas do you have for the services that it might provide in the next decades?

Looking back over the past 30 years, we have seen significant changes in how people live and also what local people expect to contribute towards, and receive from, public services.  What do you think is likely to happen over the next 30 years?  Is there anything specific to North Wales that needs to be considered?

Climate change, environmental responsibility, social responsibility…what would you like to see in the Fire and Rescue Service’s plans for the future?  Everyone knows that it is a Service that has changed and adapted to a great extent over the years.  But waiting until the last minute before reacting is rarely the best way of doing things, which is why the Authority needs to plan ahead with an adaptable long-term strategy. 

We hope you find the information provided useful and that this will encourage you to submit your views before 31 December 2019. Details on how to respond are available at the end of the document.

Reviewing Local Discretions which are available as part of the scheme.

This suvey will provide us with valuable infoirmation, which will be used to improve our services.  We would be grateful if you could spend a few minutes completing this survey.

The names of all tenants who return the completed survey by 1^st November 2019 will be entered into a prize draw to win £50 in vouchers.

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey

Due to the decisions made by Government, Wrexham Council has had to make huge changes to the things we do and the way we work which have meant we’ve cut our budget by over £62m since the economic crisis in 2007/2008 – this is the same as over 25% of our current budget of £237m and means we have reduced our number of employees by over 600 people.  We have done this by becoming more efficient and have tried, wherever possible, not to reduce the range of services we provide. 

Unfortunately, the money that the UK and Welsh Government gives to us (which is about 3/4 of our entire funding) is already below the Welsh average per person and this year we are again expecting further reductions.  We are estimating that we will be around £9.8m short of what we need over the next two years – with £5.4m of this needed next year.  However, because of the uncertainty with politics and government at the moment, we won’t know the exact amount that we’re being given until November.  This depends on what the governments in the UK and Wales decide is important to them – but there is a chance that that the budget shortfall will increase to approximately £7.2m for next year.

Putting it simply, we are no longer in a position where we can continue to do everything we did five years ago and we are now beyond a tipping point – meaning we have no other option but to stop or reduce service delivery when the budget is being reduced by so much.  Due to the level of cuts being imposed on us by Welsh Government, we are left making unthinkable decisions, which will impact on residents.  We do not want to do this.

We will continue to lobby the UK and Welsh Governments until the point they realise they cannot keep cutting public services and we will do everything we can to support key frontline services, whilst continuing to review other areas to look for any last efficiencies we can find.

Under the Representation of the People Act 1983, the Council has a duty to divide its area into polling districts and to designate a polling place for each district.  It also has to keep these arrangements under review. The Electoral Administration Act 2006 introduced a duty on all local authorities in Great Britain to review their polling districts and polling places.

The responses to the consultation were considered at a meeting of the Council held on 18 December 2019.  No changes were made to the polling districts, but some changes were agreed in respect of some polling stations.  A list of these changes with the reasons is included in the document below.  You can access the full report to Council here https://moderngov.wrexham.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=128&MId=4754 

The revised lists of polling districts and polling stations in are outlied in the documents below. 

Alternative suitable polling stations have been found where existing ones have become unavailable or have been identified as no longer suitable which will give residents better access in future elections.

Wrexham Council has a track record of making cuts - £33.8m in the last five years and nearly £60m since the economic crisis began in 2007/08. Over 3/4 of these have been achieved with minimal impact on the majority of the public and without having to drastically reduce the range of services we provide. 

However we are now at the stage where we are having to reduce these services (i.e. a tipping point). The money that UK and Welsh Government gives to us (which is about 3/4 of our entire funding) is already below the Welsh average per person, alongside this we have kept our council tax low and we are now facing increasing demand for services such as children and adult's social care. 

We have been lobbying the Government, along with other Welsh Local Authorities, for a fairer proportion of their overall budget. But unfortunately we found out in early October that we have not received enough funding to allow us to meet all of our budget pressures for 2019/20, and leaves us with budget risks for 2020/21. Therefore we have to find an additional £9m this year to balance our books. In addition, we cannot afford to take our eyes off the future, as even if we do everything we are proposing in this document, we anticipate we will still need to make further cuts of around the same amount in in 2020/21.

In October and November 2018, Wrexham County Borough Council asked the public of Wrexham to take part in the ‘Difficult Decisions’ consultation, to inform the decisions we had to make in order to contribute to the estimated £9million we need to save in 2019/20.

The consultation involved a survey and a market stall event. A number of individuals and groups also submitted letters/emails of response. 3,350 people took part in the consultation in all , and we would like to thank all those people and groups who took part.

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 your views have directly impacted on a proposal, and also explaining when there are times where we could not do everything suggested by the public (and explaining why).

So, we are now presenting this ‘You Said, We Did’ report to show you the final decisions that have been made about each of the proposals presented for consultation.

If you want to read all of the details about the proposals the Council made, and the results of the consultation, you will find a full report here.

Our heritage is a ‘finite and irreplaceable resource’ it represents the sum of our and our ancestors shared experience; it provides both a sense of self and of community, understanding it provides lessons for the present and for the future. Heritage is also a significant economic driver, in Wales the sector supports close to 40,000 jobs, generates £749m and is twice the size, for example, of the agricultural sector. Heritage in turn is a major factor in the success of North Wales as a visitor destination, being judged recently by Lonely Planet as the World’s 4^th best place to visit.

Wrexham published its last Heritage Strategy in 2005, that strategy established a vision for our shared heritage to ‘Enable the full potential of our heritage to flourish, so that it can make the maximum possible contribution and enrich all aspects of life in the County Borough, for the benefit of local residents and visitors alike’, and saw the establishment of the Wrexham Heritage Forum, an umbrella organisation to represent all of our community based heritage groups, since incorporated into the North East Wales Heritage Forum.

Since the last strategy was published, the ‘age of austerity’ has led to unprecedented cut backs in public spending, which have impacted on non-statutory services like heritage. In Wrexham, we have seen the closure to the public of museums at Minera, Bersham Ironworks and Bersham Heritage Centre and even consideration given to the potential for heritage services to be transferred away from local authority control.

Given this context we are developing a new heritage strategy for Wrexham.  This new strategy, Making Connections, seeks to encourage a heritage sector that is both resilient and sustainable by seeking a more joined up approach. The ultimate objective is to create a heritage sector that effectively utilises heritage as both a tool for economic regeneration and for engagement, but at its core aims to better conserve and interpret what we have. 

The Heritage Strategy was agreed by the Executive Board in November. The public consultation in September and October yielded 31 responses.  This showed strong support for the main recommendations with between 90 and 97% of respondents either agreeing or strongly agreeing with them. Respondents were also given an opportunity to comment on the draft text. Examples of comments received included, for example, the inclusion of women’s history; the need for town centre interpretation; that the strategy was vague and not particularly inspirational. With the exception of the latter comment we agreed with most of the comments made although none actually required a material change to the draft strategy and as they were either explicitly or implicitly already covered by the draft.

Wrexham County Borough Council has received some funding to provide female sanitary equipment and products across Wrexham schools.  A small group of Councillors has been set up (a Scrutiny Task and Finish Group) to consider what the Council can do to improve provision locally and to make sure that this money is spent in the right way.

The full report on the findings and recommendations of the Task & Finish Group can be found here (http://moderngov.wrexham.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=172&MId=4433 ).  Key messages were as follows:-

Availability of sanitary products/sanitary disposal facilities:

• There appears to be some provision of sanitary products across all schools, but pupils don’t necessarily know about it.
• There is disparity between where free sanitary products are available and how pupils would like to access them – pupil preference for direct access through vending machines or boxes in toilets/cubicles vs staff preference for indirect access through nominated member of staff.
• Although there is provision of sanitary disposal facilities (bins) across schools, there appears to be inconsistency in following the Council’s model hygiene policy which is based on Welsh Government guidance (ie Sanitary disposal units are available in all age-appropriate female toilets within individual cubicles). 

   

Choice and Quality of Sanitary products

• Overall, sanitary towels and tampons are the preferred products, but towels are the main preference for primary schools.
• Less than 50% of pupil respondents thought the choice and quality of products were suitable in both primary and secondary.  Most of the comments related to the need for pupils to have more choice.

The Lifelong Learning Scrutiny Committee made a number of recommendations to the Head of Education, based on the feedback from schools, pupils and local groups involved in the distribution of free sanitary products in Wrexham.  These included the following:-

1. That sanitary dispensing shelves be provided in as many female toilet cubicles as possible across all secondary schools, within the limited Welsh Government grant funding available.

    

2. That, with regard to the provision of free sanitary products, the Welsh Government revenue grant funding be prioritised as follows:-

    

   (a) the provision of sanitary towels across all Secondary Schools for direct access within the toilet cubicles, with tampons also being made available on request from a nominated member of staff, in accordance with education guidance. 

    

   (b) some provision of sanitary towels in all primary schools

    

The Chair, Councillor Carrie Harper, also forwarded the report and recommendations to the relevant Welsh Government Ministers to highlight the ongoing need for specific and sufficient funding to address this issue.

In March 2019, Welsh Government issued additional funding of £96,507 to the Council to ensure sanitary products are made available to all learners in all schools free of charge.   The funding has been allocated as follows:-

• All secondary schools have been provided with a range of free sanitary products (range of tampons and towels).   From September 2019, secondary schools will also be provided with a small supply of reusable products (reusable towels and mooncups). 
• All primary schools received a supply of products (range of sanitary towels) during June 2019, with additional products being made available throughout the year.
• Unfortunately, the dispensing shelves in school toilets proved too costly.  Instead, all secondary schools were supported with funding to enable them to develop local distribution systems which are developed in conjunction with the pupils and considers their view that the products should be freely accessible within the toilet cubicles

All schools have been asked to feedback on the usage of the products, which will inform future deliveries throughout the year and potential future spending.

Wrexham County Borough Council (along with all other Welsh Local Authorities) is required under the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 to produce an Integrated Network Map setting out a 15 year programme of improvements. The public consultation is to inform the development of the Integrated Network Map will be undertaken during 2018. The feedback received from the consultation will be used to help inform the development of the Integrated Network Maps.

Wrexham County Borough Council is preparing the Local Development Plan (LDP) which will replace the current adopted Unitary Development Plan. The LDP will be a long-term land use and development strategy focused on achieving sustainable development and will:

• guide development for housing, employment, retail and other uses;
• set out policies that will be used to decide planning applications; and
• safeguard areas of land requiring protection or enhancement.