Consultation for the Council Plan 2020-22

Consultation for the Council Plan 2020-22

Why are we doing this?: 

The Council Plan is …

Our current Council Plan was first approved in 2017 and it contains four themes: Economy, People, Place and Organisation.  Under each of these themes there are a number of objectives (14 in total).  This Plan is reviewed annually and in late 2018 Elected Members discussed concerns that the Plan had become too broad for us to deliver with the shrinking budget which the Council has.  In response we have tried to define a clearer vision for each of our themes, reviewed our strategies, projects and other commitments and have now developed a smaller, more focused set of priorities to work on this year.  These are tightly defined with clear activities that will be the main focus of work for 2019/20, contributing to our priorities and other shared priorities agreed with partners through Wrexham’s Public Service Board. 

These six priorities are:

  • Developing the economy
  • Ensuring a modern and resilient Council
  • Ensuring everyone is safe
  • Improving secondary education
  • Improving the environment
  • Promoting good health and well-being

What do we want to know?: 

This consultation is an opportunity to ask people what they think of our six new Council priorities.  The purpose is to inform our work in 2019-20, and begin to inform work around future Council priorities from 2020-21 and beyond.  The priorities will also be used to inform financial decisions where appropriate and relevant.

What we found out: 

We received 244 responses to this consultation.  Whilst this is a disappointingly low response, it is not unexpected given that we were not proposing specific service cuts or changes.

The results showed general support for the priorities, with scores for importance of more than six for all of them.

  • People were asked to read a description of each priority, which explained broadly what we intended each priority to mean and include.  People were then asked to what extent they agreed with the description of each priority.  There were higher levels of agreement than disagreement; with improving secondary education receiving the highest level of agreement (64.64%), and ensuring a modern and resilient council receiving the lowest level of agreement (40.18%).
  • People were then asked to read a series of bullet points which detailed our key activities and areas of work (in the short and longer term).  People were asked to what extent they agreed that these work areas and activities would contribute towards the aim of the priority.  There were higher levels of agreement than disagreement; with developing the economy receiving the highest level of agreement (68.93%) and ensuring a modern and resilient council receiving the lowest level of agreement (44.09%).
What difference has it made?: 

Feedback was provided to the Council's Priority Programme Boards in order to help revise the in-year priorities for 2019 into Council priorities for the Council Plan 2020-23. 

Public consultation on the draft Council plan for 2020-23 then took place for six weeks in February and March 2020.

Consultation start date 12 June 2019
Consultation end date 24 July 2019